UK startup Osper is promising to reinvent banking for young people through a new prepaid card and mobile app-based service. The firm has raised over $10 million in pre-launch funding from a group of prominent European investors and CEOs.
Aimed at the UK’s seven million eight to 18 year olds, Osper was founded by former maths teacher and M-Pesa staffer Alick Varma as a way to give children financial freedom and encourage them to take responsibility for their money.
Kids get a prepaid MasterCard card which they can use for online and in-store purchases, as well as for ATM withdrawals. Meanwhile, an iOS and Android app provides instant balance checks, and transaction monitoring, including via text alerts.
Parents can also access the app from their handsets to monitor spending and load funds, creating, says Osper, more transparent and open conversations about money. Designed for eight to 18 year olds, Osper uses a ‘dual app’ system for children and parents, enabling parents to monitor spending and loading in real-time and receive SMS alerts when transactions are declined due to insufficient funds.
The app is not tied to a physical bank and Osper claims that parents can set up an account online in under two minutes, with fraud and identity checks taking place in real time. The cards are free to use for the first year and £10 per year thereafter.
Alick Varma, founder of Osper, said: “Despite three quarters of young people having a bank account, less than 30% use online banking and there is a heavy reliance on parents lending cash or their credit card for purchases with one in five UK children using their parents’ cards in secret. There is a need to reinvent banking for young people; they should have the tools to build self-confidence to manage money from a young age.”
“Parents currently spend an average of £10,000 a year on their children but young people are only accountable for around 5% of that – this leads to far too many young adults leaving home without experience of budgeting and unprepared to manage the financial responsibilities ahead of them. Osper gives young people the freedom and control needed to ‘learn by doing’ within the framework of a safe and secure family environment.”
Robin Klein, partner at Index Ventures, added: “We have huge confidence in the purpose and global potential of Osper. Its smart and simple mobile approach will no doubt generate huge interest from young people and their parents and give them the tools to have an open dialogue about financial responsibility.
“We are proud to be invested in a service with such ambition.”
Peter Jackson, investor in Osper and chief executive of Travelex, said: “Osper provides banking for young people using the devices they understand – no branches or cumbersome setup process, just user-friendly mobile apps within a safe, secure and regulated environment.“I have no doubt the service will disrupt consumer banking for young people and beyond.”
See the video link below to see how it works
Banking 4.0 – „how was the experience for you”
„So many people are coming here to Bucharest, people that I see and interact on linkedin and now I get the change to meet them in person. It was like being to the Football World Cup but this was the World Cup on linkedin in payments and open banking.”
Many more interesting quotes in the video below:
