Where kids learn to handle money
before money handles them.
A financial literacy platform for the next generation, built to create lifelong confidence with money.
The system has had decades to fix this. It hasn't.
UK children currently lack the money skills they will need as adults.
of UK children have received any meaningful financial education at home or at school.
of 18 to 24 year olds passed a basic financial literacy test in 2025. Lowest of any age group.
Children's attitudes toward money are formed as early as age 7. The problem starts in childhood, not adulthood.
It is an economic one, and the numbers prove it.
of UK adults fall below the national financial literacy benchmark.
of Gen Z are concerned about the money they currently owe.
of UK adults have low confidence managing their money day to day.
Bad financial habits are not formed in adulthood. They are the result of a childhood with no financial education. The earlier the intervention, the better the outcome, for the individual and for society.
Because it feels like a game, not a lesson.
Users manage a virtual financial life with real mechanics and consequences.
An in-app character ages as the child progresses, building emotional investment.
The journey ends with the most powerful moment: their first real bank account.
Real-world financial skills, delivered through a platform children actually want to use.
Six systems that make financial education feel like play.
Income, expenses, rent, bills, savings and investment decisions. Every choice has a consequence.
Levels, missions and rewards. Progress is earned, not given, and scales with the user.
The character ages and evolves. Lessons get harder, emotional connection deepens.
Monitor progress, set goals, approve milestones. Opens family conversations, not replaces them.
Saving, budgeting, credit, debt, investing, taxes and cryptocurrency introduced progressively and age appropriately.
After completing the journey, users unlock their first real bank account.
Three powerful market forces converging at exactly the right time.
children aged 7 to 17 in the UK represent the immediately addressable audience.
in 2024, growing at 15% per year. Projected to exceed $30B by 2035.
in 2024, forecast to reach $8.7B by 2033 at a CAGR of 15.8%.
The gap is not a feature gap. It is a vision gap.
| Feature | Grow With Joe | GoHenry | Rooster | Greenlight |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Real-life financial simulation | ✅ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Aging character progression | ✅ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Deep gamification and missions | ✅ | ◐ | ◐ | ◐ |
| Parent dashboard | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Bank partnership and graduation | ✅ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Pure education focus | ✅ | ◐ | ◐ | ◐ |
Existing apps manage pocket money. Grow With Joe Finance builds financially confident people.
Banks spent £8.2M educating 5.9M children in 2023. Investment is growing but impact is low.
45% of young adults have never engaged with a bank's own financial education platform.
A child who opens their first account here is more likely to stay with that bank for decades.
UK banks and building societies that already invest in youth financial education and understand the value of early customer acquisition.
Challenger banks and fintech platforms with existing youth or family product offerings looking to deepen engagement.
Any institution that wants to be the first bank a financially educated young person ever opens an account with.
Consumer revenue is predictable. Schools build scale. Bank partnerships are the high-value commercial opportunity.
Free tier for core content, premium subscription for advanced simulations. Recurring monthly revenue from families.
Annual licences for schools to deliver Grow With Joe as their financial education provision. Scalable and low cost.
Referral fee when a user graduates and opens a bank account through the platform. The model that sets this business apart.
Banks and institutions fund educational modules. Clearly labelled, genuinely educational, beneficial to users.
Current status.
Concept fully developed and validated
Pitch materials complete and investor ready
Landing page in development, approaching launch
MVP development in progress
Bank partnership strategy ready for outreach
UK Government committed to reaching 2 million more children with financial education by 2030.
Financial institutions spent £8.2M reaching 5.9M children in 2023. Willingness to invest is proven.
No existing UK product combines real-life simulation, character-led progression and a bank graduation model. The gap is validated.
Joe's understanding of money was built through lived experience. From the age of 12 he worked in his family's inflatable and bouncy castle business, one of the largest in the North East of England, learning responsibility, customer service and what it takes to run a business day to day. After school he worked on overhead powerlines, building discipline and resilience. At 28 he launched his own telecommunications company, scaled it to over £1 million in turnover and successfully exited.
Today Joe works within the financial markets alongside a forex brokerage, with direct exposure to trading, investing and the global financial system. That experience deepened his understanding of how money truly works and how little of that knowledge ever reaches the people who need it most.
Everything Joe is building is driven by one thing: his children. His daughter has already shown a natural entrepreneurial instinct from a young age. Her first venture was a lemonade stand outside the house. She is now planning a face painting business for the summer. That drive is something Joe wants to nurture properly. Making money is only one part of the equation. The real skill is knowing how to manage it, grow it and make it work over time. That is the part most people never learn, and that is exactly what Grow With Joe Finance is built to change.
What we need looks different depending on who you are.
We are raising a seed round to fund MVP development, initial school pilots and our first bank partnership. The right investor recognises the bank partnership model as the commercial differentiator it is.
We are looking for forward-thinking schools to pilot Grow With Joe Finance as part of their financial education provision. Pilot schools receive the product at no cost and are recognised as founding education partners.
We are seeking one or two strategic bank partners to co-develop the graduation model. Early movers shape the product and access a pre-educated pipeline of first-time account holders at an unmatched cost of acquisition.
The gap is clear. The market is ready. The model makes sense. And the moment for this is now.