Strive launches challenger ‘bank’ for families, following GoSave acquisition

There’s a new challenger on the block for kids and parents, with Strive launching today with its own take on digital banking and financial education for families to rival the likes of Osper and GoHenry.

Strive, which today announced the acquisition of ‘digital piggy bank’ fintech GoSave, is combining GoSave’s interactive piggy bank with its savings account for kids to help teach better financial awareness to the next generation.

GoSave was due to launch in the UK this year, but has now been snapped up by Strive in what was described as an all stock deal.

“We’ve been working with GoSave for a period of time now with some of our clients, and the idea of a youth focused challenger bank kept coming up,” said Strive’s chief strategy officer Ivan Muck.

Strive is designed to develop as kids grow up, so starts with a savings account (at £2/month cost to the parent), then develops to an interactive piggy bank (£99 sold separately), a chores and pocket money app for kids 8+, and finally a debit card as they grow up.

“We see a real gap in the market to build a solution for parents that grows with the child, so it’s not just a debit card, it’s a whole 0-18 proposition that parents can start at any age.”

While Strive’s marketing describes it as a ‘bank’, for now the fintech is just an agent of leading e-money group, which is powering Strive’s card issuing and payment processing.

Strive’s plan is to initially launch in the UK, with a crowdfunding campaign planned “in a few months”

With its physical piggy bank, back in February we said about GoSave “by disconnecting the smartphone from savings, offers GoSave a rather unique selling point which in-time might appeal to even more parents than its smartphone-centric rivals.”

Whether this is still true and if Strive has a unique enough offering to take on the likes of Osper,GoHenry,Revolut Junior and Starling Kite, we’ll have to wait and see.