Gravystack raises $5.2m to launch gamified financial literacy banking platform

By Edlyn Cardoza

Serial entrepreneurs Scott Donnell and Travis Adams have raised a $5.2 million seed round led by Altrus Capital and a pool of private investors to launch the GravyStack financial literacy app. Key investors include Chad Willardson, Mark Timm, Gino Wickman, Jim Kwik, Kate Wells, Loral Langemeier, and David Meltzer.

GravyStack will launch in mid-2022 with a sophisticated banking and gamification engine that incentivises kids and teens to earn and manage their money with several levels of real-world, skill-building challenges. Parents can supervise their kids’ account activity and set flexible controls, making GravyStack a FinTech solution for the whole family.

“GravyStack is more than just a debit card for kids, and better than allowance,” said Donnell. “This is a financial road map for children in real time. GravyStack breaks down the simplicity of money, from saving to spending to sharing, and combines innovative banking technology with 100 games to make it fun for kids to learn.”

“We both have several kids, and all of our investors are parents,” said Adams. “We’ve faced the challenge of figuring out how to teach our kids about money, and what to tell them when they ask us for money. If you give them free money, like an allowance, you’re training them to expect this in the future. If you say no, you open the door to an argument. These are no-win situations. GravyStack gives parents a third option – to say, ‘Open up GravyStack. What can you do to earn your own money?'”

The funding round enabled GravyStack to recruit key executives, including Chief Banking Officer Gary Arnold, who led the creation of Amazon Pay and the PayPal Commerce Platform; and Chief Product Officer John Fowler, who built several multimillion-dollar companies from ideation to exit.