From left to right – Vasilis Zoupas and Filippos Antonopoulos, Co-founders of Woli.
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Written by Vassil Terziev, Roberta Tihomirova, and Nikola Yanev.
“Startups are meant to have an impact on society” – these were the thoughts of Vasilis Zoupas, every time he got involved in building a new product. While he was exploring deeper the fintech space as a Product Manager at Viva Wallet, he identified a gap – the youth does not have a clear solution for payments and money management while growing up. Kids of his friends were constantly “borrowing” daddy’s card to buy online games or special characters in Fortnite and he was listening to the parents’ endless complaints. At the same time a longer-term problem was maturing – in today’s fast-changing world kids do not get adequate financial and money management education.
This is how Woli was born.
Woli is a money management platform designed around childrens’ financial needs,
with a vision to empower them through financial independence and knowledge. The fintech app is coupled with a debit card to automate family finances and help children grow good money skills in a fun, educational, and secure way. For parents, Woli is a smart tool to organize family allowances, including custom spending controls, automated pocket money, or instant transfers. For kids, it is their first money account along with their first personal debit card, allowing them to gain control of their financial life.
Once 18 years old, teenagers are expected to manage their finances
and money responsibilities as they enter adult life. Yet, until that point, they are given very little training and tools to fully comprehend the benefits and pitfalls of money management and banking products. This leaves them short on basic financial management skills and an inability to take viable financial decisions.
What’s more, the world is changing rapidly, but some things haven’t followed the pace. Our society is becoming cashless, making money management and transactions safer, faster, and mobile. However, in an ever-more digital world, parents still don’t have a tool to automate their children’s pocket money and replace cash payments while gaining visibility over their spending habits. Children, on the other hand, have growing needs to make online purchases, which makes them highly dependent on their parents to provide debit or credit card details. They don’t have the freedom to manage their money and set their own goals. There are limited options to teach them financial independence while still at school and to build healthy spending, saving, and investing habits from an early age.
There is a growing necessity for parents to
manage their children’s money in a digital format. Established wallet apps are moving downwards towards this segment by extending teenage offerings, by providing parent-children accounts enabling parents to control the spending of their children. Yet most of these apps don’t address good habits, financial education, and the need for kids to feel empowered and competent in managing their money. Neobanks have saturated the adult market, and the next step is to provide an appealing financial product for kids and teenagers who are conducting ever more digital and offline transactions. And while family finance apps are seeing growing attention in the USA, there are very few players in Europe currently and no clear market leader in South Europe addressing the issue of financial services and money education for kids. This is where Woli comes along.
Woli enables children with their very first digital banking tool,
money app and smart prepaid bank card, allowing them access to digital payments along with a great tool to help them learn good skills on money management. Its “money experience” is designed around the 5 pillars of financial literacy:
- Earn – Comprehend the value of money and the concept of income;
- Spend – Learn how to spend wisely and within boundaries;
- Save – Stash part of your income for future goals or a rainy day;
- Donate – Help others with the surplus of your money;
- Invest – Grow your money, while understanding the risks.
Parents can automate allowance, set flexible parental controls, and even create tasks for their children. Children gain financial independence, their first money account, and their own debit card to shop online and in-store. They are encouraged to develop good habits such as budgeting, saving and donating to noble causes. The educational platform includes fun money quizzes and games, which are designed together with partners who have special skills in youth financial literacy. Woli’s mission is to help youngsters between the ages of 10 and 19 years-old to learn about money management by doing, with the initial markets being Greece, Spain, Italy and Portugal.
Woli is powered by a growing team with unique collective expertise
across fintech, payments, education and social gaming, united by their quest to guide families into the digital era. The company was founded in 2020 by Vasilis Zoupas and Filippos Antonopoulos who have been friends since childhood, have a long work history together, and rich experience in fintech and payments.
Learn more about Woli or download the app and check out its features yourself – https://www.woli.io.
