Overview
Greenlight Financial Technology, Inc. is an innovative money management platform headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It was founded in 2014 by Johnson-Cook and Timothy Sheehan.
The company helps family educate their kids about personal finance. It issues a debit card that is user-friendly for both youngsters and grownups.
Kids have access to manage their finances. Meanwhile, parents can oversee the transaction in their rights. With this specialty, the firm has gained over 4M users.
Company Profile
| Company Name | Greenlight Financial Technology, Inc. |
| Website | https://greenlight.com/ |
| Founded | 2014 |
| Founders | Johnson Cook, Timothy Sheehan |
| Key People | Timothy Sheehan – Co-Founder, CEO, Johnson Cook – Co-founder & President, James Gaythwaite – Chief Technology Officer, Rachel Hamilton – Chief Marketing Officer, Chris Halaschek – Chief Product Officer, Brandon Horne – GM, Head of Co-Brand |
| Headquarter | Atlanta, Georgia, United States |
| Company Revenue | $34.3M per year |
| Key Competitors | GoHenry, BusyKid, Axos First Checking, Step |
What is Greenlight? A Brief History
Greenlight offers a money-management program that assists the guardians in navigating their children about financial views.
The parents’ debit cards are used as a learning material to teach the children how to manage their money efficiently and effectively from a young age.
Kids will learn from spending, saving, and even investing without feeling like a complex task only for adults.
According to TechCrunch, the institution achieved remarkable recognition after its inauguration in 2017. Likewise, the venture received $7.5M from investors in the first funding round, including New Enterprise Associates, Relay Ventures, and others.
In 2019, the firm raised $54M in a Series B funding round which distinguished investor Drive Capital directed. The institution earned $215 million in funding in their series C funding round, bringing them to a $1.2 billion valuation.
How Does Greenlight Work and What Does it Offer?
This enterprise focuses on financial services in mobile apps for children and parents. It develops a smart instrument for youngsters to adopt healthy financial habits that they can practice for their future adulthood.
The mobile app enhances parents’ accessibility over their kids’ money management activity in their debit cards. Here are some of the most essential services that the business provides:
● Debit Cards
The organization launched its first debit card in 2017. With the prepaid card, parents have supervision to limit the amount of money for their children to perform the transactions. Although the card is used almost everywhere, the grownups have the right to set the boundary of admission to specific shops. This prevention will keep the kids safe from scams and bad influences.
● Educational Materials
The mobile app gives great access to financial education with a load of tools and resources. Children will absorb about the true meaning of money, especially how to earn and spend it wisely.
● Savings Account
The app also integrates a system for saving accounts. The goal is to show youngsters value the significance of savings in their accounts. Meanwhile, the guardians can allow their kids to retain the money received from their parent-paid interest. Through a special program, each family member is encouraged to commit to reaching a target amount to cheer together.
● Cashback
Kids can make some cashback from various transactions within their subscription plans. Simply put, the program exposes the children to discover the ways of smart spending.
● Investing
Using a proactive method, the program exhibits the basics of investing to the kids. Indeed, with Greenlight Invest+ and Greenlight Max plans, parents can use available resources to guide their children about their investment journey.
The truth is that this app arms the young users with the fundamental lesson of markets and stocks news reported by Morningstar data analysis.
Apparently, a family can start investing as little as $1 through small partial shares acquiring. Then, the users can observe and direct every purchase made by their kids. In addition, there is no extra charging fee to parents when conducting the investment process.
● Safe Learning Place
The application ensures that all kids will attain financial knowledge at a safe learning place. The reason is that every transaction stays under parental control and consent. So, they can inspect their child’s doings, like pending absent debit cards.
Furthermore, the app embeds fingerprint and facial recognition technology to give users more confidence in their security protection.
Greenlight Business Model
Its business model concentrates on the financial literacy of the young generation. The founders are heavily worried about the inadequacy of money management skills for kids, especially those who cannot get the same privilege.
Their team believes that financial awareness is not a one-off course that can be taught in the classroom. Instead, it is a life-long learning lesson that individuals need to obtain from early age to adulthood.
With a strong goal of assisting parents foster money-wise kids, the organization has continually multiplied its provisions in the industry, earning millions of users. No wonder the corporation has established itself to be a front-runner in the marketplace.
Chances are kids will inevitably make missteps. Nevertheless, the enterprise reassures parents to advise their children on fixing the issues and correcting them. That being the case, users can monitor their youngsters from spoiling their credit or undergoing any debt. These acts will prepare them for potential financial success.
Greenlight Unique Selling Propositions
This fintech application equips investing roadmaps to the kids seamlessly. The card gives an opportunity for them to discover spending, saving, and even investing through abundant learning services.
● Greenlight
This is the basic subscription plan with of $4.99 fee charged monthly. It is the cheapest option on the platform containing debit cards, eligible for up to five children. The plan also incorporates tools that facilitate families to screen their expense, earning, and saving targets.
● Greenlight + Invest
The program embraces users ‘ investing journey. It can be a decent scheme for family financial mastery, which costs $7.98 per month. Youngsters can learn and practice the basic investment portfolio under parents’ consent, starting from $1 without an embedded trading fee.
● Greenlight Max
With $9.98 fee monthly, the system stumbles on more assistance. It builds in all-encompassing protection beyond financial supplies and instruments.
The provision includes identity theft protection, cell phone protection, and purchase protection. It is one of the best subscriptions every family desires.
How Does Greenlight Make Money 2022?
The entity makes money through paid subscription services based on monthly and other transaction fees on debit card performance. The entity arranges multi-level subscriptions and earns income from millions of users.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, families have more time at home to use the application to teach their children about financial know-how. Users trust this brand as the service provides practical, convenient, and informative resources that they seek for their kids.
Greenlight SWOT Analysis 2022
Strengths
- High-Security Features:
The platform comes with a rolling security feature as it requires guardians’ approval for any tempting transaction from their children. Therefore, the users can rest assured of their debit cards.
- Educational Resources About Finance:
Many intelligent investing tools are easy and useful for kids. The debit card intervenes the users from excess spending. Simultaneously, they will learn a valuable lesson about money management maturely.
- Successful Family Financial Plan:
The application makes it useful for the users to learn and prepare a financial plan for the whole family. Parents can transfer money to the card, schedule deposits, and oversee the transactions effortlessly. So, they can examine their kids’ judgment on money spending and then open discussion with the youngsters to learn from their experience.
Weaknesses
The downside of Greenlight is that it’s subject to a fee, both monthly fee, and parent-paid interest. The reason is that you can provide your children free access to a regular or prepaid debit card. This is also a way to teach investing and saving money.
Joint accounts are available at many top banks. They enable you to access and manage everything, but it is not as easy as Greenlight. It is up to you to choose what suits your inclinations in managing your money.
Opportunities
Greenlight has been climbing corporate success since the early days, establishing fame in the marketplace as it grows more customers base every year. It has risen enormously over the last several years and is presently valued at $2.3B.
In a 2020 conference, the CEO demonstrated that the firm had reached 300% growth yearly. At once, major investors like Andreessen Horowitz have a strong faith that the platform will develop as a prominent name for their clients worldwide.
Realizing this accomplishment, more stakeholders want to be part of their company’s success. The market estimated this trademark would attain more triumph in the upcoming rounds. With this huge capital, the entity had a plan to expand more workforce to magnify its business concept.
Threats
New technology is always associated with threats, particularly when kids are engaged. As reported by Javelin Strategy & Research in 2018, over one million children fell victims to identity theft in 2017. Approximately 80% of them were 12 years old kids or younger. Plus, the cost of this harmful behavior appeared to be $2.67B.
Under COVID-19 constant provocation, the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) has acknowledged a number of statements regarding personal data violations more than ever.
Although it was not the initial accountability of fintech-related parties, the corporations have a critical position to unscramble the setback. Some reliable sources have showcased that many financial establishments do have the urge to trade customer data.
This is a part of treasured means for businesses, specifically data mining. Ultimately, the consequence might be transmitted to end customers to vigorously examine and safeguard their own and child’s data.