Greenlight Financial helps parents raise financially-smart kids.

Greenlight’s mission to help kids save and spend smart with its debit cards received a $215 million boost Thursday via its Series C funding. Led by Canapi Ventures and TTV Capital, the round also received participation from new investors BOND, DST Global, Goodwater Capital, and Fin VC. Greenlight also welcomed aboard Relay Ventures as its first institutional investor. (Crunchbase)

The round valued Greenlight at $1.2 billion, catapulting the startup into unicorn status.

Financial literacy for kids

Greenlight’s debit cards (for up to five kids) and app combine to enable parents to conveniently fund their kids’ accounts, anytime, or even automatically.

Other features of these debit cards include chore management, real-time transaction notifications, round-up saving, parent-paid interest on savings, and controls such as ATM withdrawals and store-specific spend limits.

Parents can use the cards and app to inculcate savings habits in their children. They can also teach them the value of money; as well – its management and compounding.

According to Greenlight, it has helped families save as much as $50 million via its app.

Its current user base includes accounts for more than 2 million parents and their children.

Founded in 2014, Greenlight issued its debit cards in 2017.

“Having achieved phenomenal growth year-over-year, this is a company on the fast-track to becoming a household name,” said Noah Knauf, general partner at BOND.

Investors appreciate the app too

“My wife and I trust Greenlight to give us the modern tools to teach our children how to manage money,” said Gardiner Garrard, founding partner at TTV Capital, in a statement. “TTV Capital is thrilled to provide continued investment to help the company empower more parents.”

The coronavirus epidemic also helped boost Greenlight’s business. Economic uncertainty pushed parents to develop a healthy attitude towards money in their kids.

The resultant growth, and the rising popularity of financial management for kids, attracted a solid response from investors to Greenlight’s latest round.

“Parents are so busy and personal finance is not taught in schools, so we fill this void,” said Tim Sheehan, co-founder and CEO of Greenlight to Crunchbase. “Our goal is for everyone to grow up financially savvy, no matter how much their parents know.”

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