Redefining the relationship that parents have with money
StorkCard empowers parents to take back control by offering AI-driven cost predictions, tailored financial solutions and an easy way for family & friends to offer support.
In the UK, it costs about £230,000 to raise one child until the age of 21, and 32% of this total cost is spent in the first 5 years alone! Many parents are simply not prepared.
They are forced to deplete their savings or rely on high-interest debt to make ends meet. Often, the financial burden of raising a family disproportionately impacts mothers and their careers. And with COVID and the looming recession, life is going to get even more difficult and complicated.
Mums and dads need to get smarter about their family finances, but they’re also going to need a little bit more help and guidance from their family and friends.
They say “raising a family is the toughest job you’ll ever love” and it’s true. It can be lots of fun, but it’s also costly and lasts a lifetime! Parents have to make countless decisions, many of which will have huge financial implications. First, there are expensive baby items and unaffordable childcare. Then, there are school costs and holiday clubs. Finally, there are university fees and even elderly care for their own parents.
Raising a family may be the “toughest job”, but it can certainly be made a lot easier, cheaper and better for all those mums and dads. This is where StorkCard comes in.
StorkCard has launched the world’s first current account specially designed to help parents “baby-proof” their savings and get the support they need from family, friends and others in their network. Following on from the successful launch of its baby budgeting app, StorkCard is now reinventing joint accounts for today’s modern families.
Co-founders Bruce Pannaman and Andres Korin met at a networking event and discovered they both shared a passion for the same issue – the excessive cost of having a child and the expenses attached. StorkCard was born.They built an app and dedicated debit card account to give mums and dads the financial guidance they need to manage their costs. The company use artificial intelligence to create a personalised spending plan that predicts the costs for clothing, feeding, sleep, play and travel over the baby’s first 12 months.
We believe the only way to truly address the financial burden placed on families is to empower mums and dads! StorkCard helps parents make smarter and more effective decisions by leveraging both predictive data and local personal networks.
We have recently gone to market with our first product – an innovative joint account that is specially designed for new parents. The debit card and app are built around the concept of a Village – a place where parents can see what big costs are coming up, where they can share relevant information and coordinate spending with their partner, family and friends and where they can access products and retail discounts that are personalised to their circumstances and preferences.
This is the start of a lifelong relationship we’re building with our customers, where we will be there at each decision point, offering relevant information and suitable products.
We already have over 5,000 registered users (growing at 75% on average each month) and are generating early revenues – incredible traction given that this period has been one of the most volatile times in history!
We are tackling an area that banks are not addressing (or willing to address): the life-stage financial needs of families. Unlike other FinTech and ParentTech offerings, we leverage both predictive data and local personal networks to empower parents to make smarter and more effective decisions.
Our data gives us a deep understanding of the unique financial needs of parents and allows us to predict how those needs will change over time. The community-focused design of our platform makes it easy for parents to mobilise and coordinate the support and goodwill from their friends and family.
We will make it easy for parents to choose us again and again, over the years, because their StorkCard Village is already integrated with their support network, and because our use of predictive data makes their decision-making simpler and gives them more peace of mind.
We are the only company helping parents make their financial choices easier, cheaper and better. In the UK (home market), all families with children under the age of 21 spend each year in aggregate over £175 billion on their children.
We estimate our total serviceable market is £4 billion in the UK. However, the financial burden of raising a family is certainly not unique to the UK alone. We eventually aim to expand to the US, Canada and Australia.
We are also looking to replicate our model to other demographics with similar life-stage financial needs, such as students, young professionals and retirees.
We are looking to raise £500,000 of seed funding (SEIS/EIS eligible) at a pre-money valuation of £3.2 million.
These proceeds will help us build on our tremendous progress so far. Funds will specifically go towards hiring (40%), marketing (25%), tech/development costs (15%), platform costs (10%) and overhead (10%).
Join us on our family finance revolution and help us liberate struggling families!
For more information on StorkCard or any of our other services, you could contact our startup mentor Adam Haider directly.
UK
Do You Have A Question? If you need any more info, you can contact the entrepreneur directly.
11 years of experience in investment banking and risk management at J.P. Morgan. Before that, he worked as a microfinance specialist with the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic for over 2 years. As a dad of two wonderfully energetic kids, Andres lives our mission every day!
Bruce is an engineer by training and has worked as a data scientist and in senior tech roles at several EdTech startups. He even founded his own B2B marketing startup.
Denis is a Big 4-qualified accountant and has worked in senior finance roles at startups and larger corporations alike
