World record set for crowdfunded FinTech Startup – and it is not aimed at adults!

FinTech is very much one of the buzzwords of the last two years, indeed so frequent is its use in so many circumstances that it is at risk of appearing on the Lake Superior University’s famous banished words list for overuse.

The FX industry is inexorably linked to financial technology, and in many cases leads the way in innovation with regard to how financial markets are navigated and how instruments are traded across the entire world, as well as provides the basis for a wide and diverse ancillary software ecosystem that supports it, with highly advanced charting, social trading, news analytics, integration and execution solutions which are constantly being honed by their expert developers.

Today, however, a record has been set for crowdfunded investment in a FinTech initiative, this time not aimed at the increasingly sophisticated and analytical retail trader, but at children.

The children of today not only grow up with electronic applications that are accessible from mobile devices regardless of location, but are born with them, making this a milestone in not only venture capital investment but also in setting the scene for the next generation of young adults which will likely outpace the Millenials as the following generation of even more tech-savvy investors who will require exponential levels of advancement to meet their ultra-modern needs.

GoHenry, which raised £4 million, is a British application which teaches children how to manage money, electronically.

In an unsurpassed level of crowdfunding investment, it is clear that electronic financial services are the future not only for us seasoned industry professionals, but for those who learn everything via electronic means from the day they can read their first letter in pre-school classes.

This morning, Louise Hill, COO of GoHenry said “We’re delighted to give the parents that love our product a chance to be a part of our future success too. We are a business that was built by parents so it’s only natural that it continues to be owned, managed and grown by parents as well. As our economies become increasingly cashless, and as purchasing moves online, children need to be able to manage their money in a digital age.”

London is not only the world’s largest financial center and home to the lions share of the entire interbank FX order flow for the world, handled by large, multinational banks from the plate glass towers of Canary Wharf, as well as the institutional FX firms that provide Tier 1 liquidity to FX firms internationally, but it is fast becoming an entrepreneurial FinTech development center, with Silicon Roundabout, a district in Shoreditch that hosts technology startups, complementing the giant institutions that dominate the skyline.

In order to keep abreast of technological change, technology providers and brokerages will have to continue to refine and develop their products as the next generation of retail customers will come to the market at a fresh age, but with a very comprehensive understanding of electronically managed financial services.

Indeed, even the crowdfunding venture capitalists are putting their faith in such a future.

Photograph courtesy of NewsMediaLive