Lymington mum's pocket money app hits millionth customer milestone
A LYMINGTON mum has seen the children’s pocket money app she launched hit its millionth customer milestone.
Gohenry, which was founded by Louise Hill in 2012, had a turnover of £13m in 2019, and it has proved especially popular during the coronavirus lockdown as house-bound kids tot up online purchases on video games.
The app was designed to help teach youngsters aged six to 18 the value of money, giving them their own Visa card topped up by parents in exchange for undertaking household chores. Children can design their own card, set savings goals and donate to gohenry’s charity partner, the NSPCC.
Louise said of her brainchild: “When we launched back in 2012 there was no other product like ours in the market. My children were racking up iTunes bills on their iPods with no realisation that the click of a button had a consequence on my bank balance.
“Now we have one million customers who, like us, recognise that money management is a vital life skill, which is a huge milestone for the company.”
She added: “Right now, during this period of social distancing that has accelerated a change in how we all interact with money, we are well positioned to support our young customers to become more confident in digital spending and interactions.”
Gohenry has doubled its customer base across the UK and US in the last two years. This year, it was ninth in the Financial Services category of the FT1000 list of fastest growing European companies and is part of Tech Nation’s 2020 Future Fifty 8.0 cohort supporting high-growth scale-ups.
During the first two weeks of the Covid-19 lockdown, online spending by UK customers jumped by 65%, with Nintendo, PlayStation, and Microsoft among the most popular outlets – up 152%, 70% and 64% respectively.
New TV channel Disney+ has also proved a huge hit with under-18s, with a massive 1,159% leap in spend since its UK launch last month.
Meanwhile, with the recent run of warm weather, parents have been keeping their children occupied at home by setting them more complex outdoor tasks, with big increases in earning through gardening (up 159%) and washing the car (up 85%) seen since the lockdown.
Last year, gohenry cardholders in the UK earned more than £97m in pocket money and were paid more than £2.3m for completing tasks around the house.
“We launched gohenry to give young people the freedom to learn and take control of their spending in a safe environment,” Louise said.
“It’s great to see kids earning money from an early age and then choosing to spend or save it – I wish tidying my room had been so lucrative when I was a child!
“Money management is a vital life skill and we are very conscious of the role we can play to help our young customers become confident in digital spending, particularly during this period of social-distancing that has accelerated the change in how we interact with money.”
Top 10 most rewarded chores
1. Tidy room £1,003,996
2. Load/empty dishwasher £394,264
3. Do homework £393,606
4. Make bed £263,823
5. Do vacuuming £220,387
6. Read £170,071
7. Empty bin/recycling £153,131
8. Put clothes away £141,043
9. Feed pets £119,917
10. Brush teeth £92,185
