Your Juno partners with Wealthify to bring financial education to women and non-binary people

Your Juno, the financial education platform that started off as just a newsletter and a Slack channel two years ago, is now partnering with Wealthify to continue helping women and non-binary people gain financial confidence.

Founded by sisters Alexia and Margot de Broglie, the platform has grown into a thriving community of more than 50,000 women and non-binary people and a space for users to learn and ask questions about finance without judgement.

With more than 350 lessons covering a whole spectrum of personal finance, from starting a budget to negotiating salary, dealing with the cost of living crisis and making your first investment, Your Juno aims to become the “financial education and confidence partner of the financial industry”.

Dubbed the ‘Duolingo of Money’, the partnership with Aviva-backed investing platform Wealthify marks the first for Your Juno to further its mission to close both the gender wealth gap and the financial literacy gap.

“[Your Juno] doesn't feel like any sort of other financial product that is out there, and I think that's why the move into B2B2C made so much sense for us,” Margot de Broglie told AltFi.

“We saw that we have a track record in being able to do something that the financial institutions have not, which is engage and educate young people when it comes to personal finance.

“So it made obvious sense for us to move into that space, but I think we first had to prove that that was something we were able to do, and I think the feedback from our community has been that it's been it's been spot on.”

“A breathe of fresh air”

Growing at a rate of 32 per cent per month and with more than half a million lessons completed on the app, Your Juno has clearly proved it can engage young people.

The sisters, who were listed on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 last year, first decided to create the platform based on a gap they saw themselves.

Neither of them came to the table with a background in banking or fintech —  something they see as a pro, rather than a con.

“For me, I see it is a huge advantage when I'm speaking to people who've been in banking for 20 years and who really have been conditioned to all think in the kind of similar way about how the problems have to be solved,” de Broglie said.

“For us, there’s a real focus on the user — because we are the user — rather than on the product itself. So it's more like we're starting with a problem rather than starting with a product and then trying to find a problem that fits.”

It’s an avocado…thanks!

In a recent poll of 5,000 users, nearly three-quarters (74 per cent) said they felt confused or intimidated by existing financial products.

With a user-friendly interface, a community feel and the option to talk through your problems anonymously, Your Juno is flipping the whole idea of financial education on its head.

Reclaiming and reframing the trope that young people just need to stop spending their money on avocados on toast, the app rewards users with virtual avocados for completing lessons that can then be spent on ClassPass vouchers, skincare and financial coaching, among other benefits.

Instead of rewarding users for spending money, like a credit card might with air miles, the app rewards users for gaining knowledge.

Removing the stigma around talking about finances, the app can act like the opposite of a social network if you want it to — rather than chatting with your friends and family, you can talk to strangers who have been through the same thing.

“The interesting thing is it's a reality that there is still a big money taboo, especially in the UK,” de Broglie said.

“People don't feel that comfortable speaking about finances often with their friends or their relatives and so creating a new type of community where you don't have to speak to your friends or your relatives, but you’re actually speaking to women you don't know, creates a real sense of trust [...] and you can still tap into the knowledge and the advice from thousands of people who are maybe in similar experiences.”

Your Juno is changing the narrative so that financial education can be joyful and engaging, and the clear next step to expand its reach is working with financial institutions.

A win-win 

Deep in conversation on many other partnerships set to be revealed this year, de Broglie said the decision to pair up with Wealthify first was obvious.

“For us, it made total sense because they're an investment platform, they’re a platform that a lot of our users use, they're built by women — which is one of the rarest things in the fintech industry — and they are really committed to transparency, to being beginner friendly and creating a product that actually benefits the end users,” de Broglie said.

Together, Your Juno and Wealthify are offering customers free access to the platform for one year (with the code WEALTHIFY), hoping to empower more people to get their finances in order.

“An educated consumer is a win-win from everyone's perspective because obviously, the consumer wins because they feel much more confident when it comes to making their choices,” de Broglie said. 

“But actually for financial institutions, it also makes sense because you know an educated consumer is less likely to churn, they're going to transact more, and we see that people who actually know what they're investing in are much, much, much more likely to invest more money because they feel more confident in what they're investing.”

Wealthify co-founder and chief strategy officer Michelle Pearce-Burke said she launched the company with the aim to make investing accessible to anyone, “closing down the barriers that many faced”.

Still a key issue in the industry, Wealthify saw the benefit that communities like Your Juno held in helping to close that gap, providing a safe space for women and non-binary people to learn and connect.

“Ultimately, I think the reason why fintech should exist is to serve and support customers to have better financial outcomes, and I think we're really putting that back at the centre,” de Broglie said.