Millennials and Generation Z (Gen Z) comprise a major part of the core fintech market, which is growing. In particular, Gen Z represents a steadily growing market. As per reports, with 2.5 billion members, Gen Z is an economic powerhouse that is projected to be the highest-earning generation this decade earning over $40 trillion annually.
Gen Z users are heavily invested in technology and grew up as technology developed and adopted it as part of their lives. Apparently, the traditional ways of accessing financial services exclude the younger generations.
In 2021, fintech has been a leading sector for VC investments clocking nearly $134 billion. This makes a milestone of 177% growth year-over-year. In addition to this growth, there is a surge in the Gen Z investors who are focusing on making investments across various sectors with an increased focus on NFT and cryptocurrency.
As Gen Z users look for alternative financial services that accept digital and technology-based models. Some fintech companies worldwide have started focusing on younger generations with alternative solutions. We have already seen Vietnamese startup Infina raise funding to democratise investing.
Here, we at TFN have listed some popular fintech startups aimed at young users.
Zedosh (UK)
Founder/s: Guillaume Kendall
Founded year: 2019
Total funding: $528k
Headquartered in Cambridge, Zedosh is the first regulated Attention Exchange that enables consumers to monetise their data and their attention. It is a smartphone app that pays Gen Z consumers. Zedosh’s proprietary machine learning engine matches the right ad to the right consumer at the right time. Consumers choose who gets their focus and time online and get paid for it.
In September 2021, Zedosh secured £400K in a recent funding round. This investment round to disrupt the digital advertising industry.
ZELF (US)
Founder/s: Elliot Goykhman
Founded year: 2019
Total funding: $2M
The fintech startup ZELF from New York is developing a Gen Z neobank that is embedded in popular social messengers. It has also launched a banking integration with Discord for gamers to enable the world’s first option for gamers to do their banking within Discord. As per the company, it takes less than 30 seconds to receive a virtual Mastercard card and an IBAN account.
From late last year, users can order their ZELF MetaPass card. Early last year, the fintech startup raised $2 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Austrian venture capital fund 3VC alongside others.
Finary (US)
Founder/s: Darian Bhathena, Jack Phifer, Michael Liu, Roger Cawdette
Founded year: 2020
Total funding: $3.3M
Another US-based fintech for Gen Z users is Finary, which is a messaging platform for investors. This platform is a place where people come together to talk about their investments, hangout, and more. This is possible by building the best investing chat experience possible for investors and they will be given access to the right resources, tools, and community.
Last year, the online community for investors, pocketed $3.2 million in a seed funding round. The investment round was led by Upfront Ventures partner Aditi Maliwal alongside other investors to help it expand its team and release new tools.
Pixpay (France)
Founder/s: Benoit Grassin, Caroline Menager, Nicolas Klein
Founded year: 2019
Total funding: $12.2M
French fintech Pixpay is a mobile banking solution for teenagers that includes a mobile bank account, a payment card, mobile payment options with Apple Pay or Google Pay, and an app that tracks spending. It helps teenagers save and manage their money. Parents can set controls and limits on spending and set tasks for their children.
In 2020, Pixpay raised €8 million to strengthen its position in France, grow its team and continue supporting teens managing their pocket money. The round was led by Global Founders, and Digital Ventures fund of Bpifrance.
Alinea (US)
Founder/s: Anam Lakhani, Eve Halimi, Nikhil Agrawal
Founded year: 2020
Total funding: $2.3M
An app-based platform for technical analysis on stock markets, Alinea provides insights on stocks and matches with stocks based on interests. It is an investing platform for playlists and stocks that involves $0 commission on investments. Female-founded Alinea lets users invest a minimum amount of as low as $1.
In August last year, Alinea nabbed $2.1 million from Y Combinator, Goodwater, Harvard, Kima Ventures, Dragon Capital, and strategic investors to empower Gen-Z investor communities.
Alkali Fintech (US)
Founder/s: Julian Feder, Eitan Prins-Trachtenberg
Founded year: 2018
Total funding: NA
Gen Z investment platform Alkali provides financial access and education to those who are underserved and underrepresented within the financial world. Besides Gen Z, Alkali is developing crypto products and innovative financial products for under-represented members.
In December 2021, Alkali Fintech announced the launch of the Generation Z Exchange Traded Fund on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange under the ticker ZGEN. Notably, it is the first ETF created for Generation Z that invests in future-focused companies that align with Generation Z.
Lendtable (US)
Founder/s: Mitchell Jones, Sheridan Clayborne
Founded year: 2020
Total funding: NA
Lendtable is a financial services company that specialises in providing income-constrained individuals with wealth-building cash advances. The company also specialises in the fields of fintech, tech, investing, and wealth and it gives people cash advances to build their wealth.
In November last year, the Black-led Gen Z fintech startup secured $18 million in a Series A funding round from a group of diverse investors including SoftBank’s SB Opportunity Fund, Valor Equity Partners, and others.
Mitto (Spain)
Founder/s: Marcos Cuevas
Founded year: 2019
Total funding: $2.8M
Spanish fintech Mitto offers a debit card and app designed for Gen Z users. It is not only a new type of card for young people from 14 to 30 years old but also a modern payment system that offers many advantages. Parents can send instant money to their children by topping up the wallet, and get an overview of their purchasing profile as well.
In 2020, Mitto nabbed €2 million in seed funding from Spanish bank Banco Sabadell via its innovation and venture arm InnoCell and others such as Athos Capital and Spanish social media influencers AuronPlay and Wismichu.
Quirk Money (UK)
Founder/s: Nafeesa Jafferjee, Nikos Melachrinos
Founded year: 2019
Total funding: $396K
Headquartered in London, Quirk Money offers financial advice tailored to individual user needs through a unique personality test. It is the first financial platform built for Gen Z, that empowers them to build wealth early. The fully personalised app using psychology, gamification, and social features lets Gen Z users learn about, track and grow their money in one place.
Early last year, the personality-powered fintech app led by a female founder picked up £300K in a pre-seed funding round led by SFC Capital and angel investors to grow the Quirk team, expand its product offering, and fuel its mission to build financial freedom for everyone.
Paid (UK)
Founder/s: Natasha Foster, Tom Howsam
Founded year: 2017
Total funding: $2.9M
A Gen Z fintech from the UK, Paid is targeted at freelancers. This service lets gig economy workers and freelancers receive payment as soon as their work is completed, instead of waiting for late invoices. The app acts as an intermediary between freelancers and their clients. Paid guarantees that freelancers receive payment within three days of completing a project and takes a small cut for this service.
In late 2020, Paid bagged £2.2 million in seed funding led by top early-stage tech investors Crane Venture Partners along with participation from Seedcamp and others for its growth and acceleration.