Finance app Goalsetter is offering a new and innovative way for how debit cards are used by young people, particularly minorities. The startup is currently the only debit card company in the United States that offers a financial literacy curriculum aimed explicitly at tweens and teens.
African American female founder Tanya Van Court drew upon her experience as an executive at ESPN and Nickelodeon to both establish her vision for the fintech app as well as to make use of her creative talents to present content. She places great emphasis on the use of content to engage and educate families and teachers.
Van Court is taking on a very real issue for minorities. Despite spending $1 trillion every year in the US, African Americans are projected to have a negative net worth by 2053, while Latino net worth will zero out by 2073, according to Prosperity Now and the Institute for Policy Studies.
“As the only Black-woman owned fintech company focused on the kid’s fintech space, we know how critical early finance education is to all kids in our country, and to Black and Brown kids in particular,” said Van Court.
Goalsetter wants to change those net worth figures by offering innovative financial education elements like, “Learn to Earn,” whereby children earn money for every financial quiz question they answer correctly. “Learn Before You Burn” enables parents to freeze their teen or tween’s debit cards until they take their weekly financial literacy quizzes.
Now with the closing of an oversubscribed seed capital round of $3.9 million, the company will be able to expand its platform and accelerate subscriber growth. She caught the eye of a broad range of investors. Her first funding came from Pipeline Angels and ERA who supported the apps launch and are now also participating in the seed round.
She gained additional support from angel investor group Astia that served as lead in the round that included PNC Bank, Mastercard, US Bank, Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures, Elevate Capital, Portfolia’s FirstStep Fund and Rising America Fund, among others.
Prominent individuals also became investors including philanthropist and investor Robert F. Smith, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Vista Equity Partners, NBA Stars Kevin Durant, Chris Paul, and Baron Davis, and MLB Star CC Sabathia and others.
“Now is the time to teach our children to become smart spenders instead of conspicuous consumers. Goalsetter does this by teaching them that financial education, saving, and investing are the building blocks for achieving generational wealth,” said Van Court.
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