UAE Start-up Fuses EdTech with FinTech to support youngsters’ critical financial education journey

The Aquila School onboards as anchor education partner

Leading community voices join mentorship programme

Two former UK teachers have fused EdTech with FinTech to create the first financial intelligence hub, complete with a learning resource and a smart money management app built by educators to nurture money management skills among kids and teens.

The purpose-built learning resource – the Edfundo Learning Lab – comprises a mix of face-to-face and micro online, free, and paid-for educational programmes.

It is designed by Simon Wing and Andrew Toward, co-founders of the Edfundo app and pre-paid debit card aimed at empowering youngsters to learn, earn, spend, and save in the impending cashless society.

Wing, Edfundo’s CEO, says financial illiteracy is rife in children and many adults making the Learning Lab an essential adjunct to Edfundo’s core product ensuring financial education underpins the transformative neobanking business model.

“Throughout our teaching careers in the UK and UAE my fellow co-founder Andrew Toward and I have found that commitments to tutoring kids in money management in schools are often hampered by the lack of appropriate teaching tools.

“The Edfundo Learning Lab will help plug the gap at home, online and in the classroom. In tandem, the smart money management app and pre-paid debit card will allow youngsters to put their learning into immediate practise,” Wing said.

Meanwhile, Dubai-based The Aquila School, part of International Schools Partnership (ISP), is the first to join the Edfundo for Schools initiative as an Edfundo Education Partner.

Head of Secondary, Benjamin Atkins said The Aquila School is committed to teaching children pressing life issues, including money management.

“The Aquila School ensures learning is engaging, relevant, and based on real life. Partnering with Edfundo supports this and develops an area of our curriculum that is vital to ensuring lifelong skills and good money management.

“We are excited that our pupils will be the first in the region to take part in the Edfundo Learning Lab, and practise taking responsibility for their own spending and saving habits with the app and pre-paid debit card, knowing parents will have full oversight and control.”

“The Edfundo Learning Lab will also encourage our families to have deeper conversations about the important things in life, as our students nurture positive financial independence.”

Edfundo’s COO Toward confirmed that parents can also take part in Edfundo’s online and in-classroom micro-learning tips, lessons, and scenarios. Extra-subscription-based, step-by-step modules will also provide full-family access to the virtual community environment where learning follows the ‘share, show, do’ model, with storytelling content.

“Our many years of teaching mean Simon and I know children learn by hearing life stories and hands-on experience,” explained Toward, Edfundo’s COO.

“To ensure this content is safe, relevant, and exciting we are co-creating and curating the financial education content with the Edfundo programme team and specialist mentors.”

The Learning Lab’s content is co-created by a group of multi-national specialists led by Wing and Toward and featuring Bahraini-British GenZ Montessori teacher, Tariq Nasser; Saudi FinTech & business development expert, Saleh AlHammad; children’s learning author & former finance executive, Will Rainey.

The Edfundo Learning Lab will go live in early March with smart money management tips and facts for public access via social media platforms as well as the Edfundo website www.edfundo.com.

Access to the smart money management app and virtual pre-paid debit card will follow within weeks, with the first availability offered to those signed up to the GoLIVEList also at www.edfundo.com

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Notes to Editors

Photo caption
UAE-based teachers, Andrew Toward (left) and Simon Wing create the world’s first financial education learning resource and smart money management app built by educators for kids and teens.

Second photo, Benjamin Atkins, Head of Secondary

About Us
Edfundo is the world’s first family-focussed Financial Intelligence Hub, comprising a Learning Lab and Smart Money Management App created by Teachers.

It is built for kids and teens to champion a new era of financial literacy, digital inclusion, and mental wellbeing. The Edfundo Learning Lab, the smart money app, and the associated pre-paid debit card are designed to help ensure youngsters are informed stakeholders in the journey towards a responsible, cashless society.

Curated around the principle of ‘doing is learning’ the Edfundo Lab and App, which has rigorous parental controls, are designed to be highly interactive and fun, with rich and engaging educational content where users can learn good financial habits from earning to budgeting to spending and to saving.

DIFC-licensed Edfundo has also designed an Edfundo for Schools initiative to support educators as they integrate real-time learning into financial education.

The Edfundo ‘GOLiveList is now open on www.edfundo.com giving children and parents’ immediate access to the Edfundo Learning Lab as well as ensuring first-mover status for the virtual pre-paid debit card.
In tandem, following a pre-seed round that recently closed over target, the seed round will close at the end May 2022. The co-founders are also planning further roll outs in the next year, including the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

About The Aquila School:
The Aquila School is an exciting international British school in Dubai, located in Dubailand. Pupils engage in lessons that promote enquiry, innovative thinking, making decisions and problem solving so that they can be independent, creative, and resilient learners. The experienced and committed teachers at the school are empowered to teach pupils what they need to learn right now, enabling them to make as much progress as possible. The school, currently open to pupils from FS1 to Year 10, will eventually grow to become a through school. The Aquila School is rated ‘Outstanding’ by the British Schools Overseas (BSO) and received the highest rating of Developed in the recent Distance Learning Evaluation conducted by the KHDA. The school was recently presented with the SEND Inclusion Award by Optimus Education. The Aquila School aims to be a community school, where collaboration with families and school connectedness ensures pupils love coming to school and have a love for learning.

The Aquila School is part of International Schools Partnership, a global group of international schools.
For more information about The Aquila School visit www.theaquilaschool.com

For GCC Media support:
Mohamed at Action PR

For UK Media support:
Peter Ibbetson [email protected]

For Learning Lab Information:
Veronique Gregorec /Users/peteribbetson/Downloads/Edfundo’s founders UAE-based Andrew Toward (left) and Simon Wing_3896.jpg [email protected]

For Investor Information:
Susan Furness [email protected]
Please visit the Edfundo Press Room
Press Room (journolink.com)