Californian ‘digital piggy bank’ GoSave plotting 2020 UK arrival

via AltFi

A savings startup that couples a physical piggy bank for children with a digital savings app for parents is planning to launch in the UK by Christmas.

GoSave, co-founded by Andre Birt and Jason Ko, is aimed at children between 5-12 who can use the company’s ‘digital piggy bank’ to see their actual bank account savings without needing a smartphone.

Parents and relatives in-turn use GoSave’s app to top-up their children’s actual bank accounts with pocket money, as well as to set chores and tasks that appear on the physical piggy banks for kids to earn money.

“Initially the start-up was about financial literacy, but then neobanks and open banking happened, so we built the product to link it to a real bank account which can initiate transfers through the platform itself,” Birt told Fintech Futures, who first reported GoSave’s plan to launch in the UK.

The company has already launched in the US where it has shipped over 500 of its physical piggy banks, with plans to also launch in Australia and introduce different versions of its piggy banks including a unicorn and robot.

By launching a smartphone-less digital savings product Birt says the startup is appealing to a growing group of parents who don’t want their young children to have a phone.

As well as selling its physical piggy banks directly to consumers and through retailers, at $149 a pop, GoSave is also looking to sell its piggy banks and app to other banks as a B2B offering.

With savings apps for kids like Osper and GoHenry both trying to take pocket money digital with apps and bank cards, GoSave is heading in a very different direction.

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.