One key thing that the pandemic collectively taught all affected was the importance of financial health. Key factors in financial health include adequate education to foster literacy, and access to tools that enable smart management of finances. A company that offers both, while targeting creating financial literacy in younger generations, is Greenlight, a family-oriented fintech aimed at children.
Founded and based in Atlanta by Co-founders Tim Sheehan and Johnson Cook, Greenlight is the financial app that has taken kids and their families by a storm since the pandemic. Offering a debit card for children, as well as a mobile app that provides tools for financial empowerment with convenient controls for money management, Greenlight has created an easy platform to inspire learning around money at an early age.
With Greenlight, kids can learn about earning, spending, saving, and giving, while parents have useful tools for managing allowance, spending, and educational resources to teach children what they’re often not learning in schools. Greenlight now even offers an investment learning platform, Greenlight Max, where kids can research stocks, receive insights from Morningstar, and make investments in major companies upon parent consent.
Since launching in 2014, the company has just shy of 300 employees serving over 3 million parents and children. Supporting its incredible growth is a recent round of funding totaling $260 million and doubling its valuation to $2.3 billion only months after landing a $215 million valuation. To date, the company has raised over $550 million. The latest funding round, a Series D, saw returning investments from TTV Capital, Canapi Ventures, Wells Fargo, Strategic Capital, and BOND, as well as new investment from Wellington Management, Owl Venture, and LionTree Partners.
Andreessen Horowitz General Partner David George will be joining Greenlight’s board of directors and issued a statement sharing that, “Greenlight has quickly emerged as a leader in the family finance category.” They added that Greenlight “is well-positioned to become one of the most loved and trusted brands for families around the world.” Indeed, this looks likely to manifest as Greenlight has targeted an enormous market that could entice future generations of youth to its financial services platform. This falls in line with the company’s vision “to create a world where every child grows up to be financially healthy and happy.”
It has been shared that the funding will be used to broaden and increase product offerings, add more financial services, invest in strategic partnerships, and expand globally. An additional 300 employees will be added to double its staff to achieve these goals.
