Sunshine+Kittens Partners With Mastercard, the PayFirm and SaaScada to Launch Disruptive New Kids’ Money Account
By Dominic Sow · 14 October 2024
Set to launch later this year, Sunshine+Kittens, the new money app partners with MasterCard to offer a full-service account designed specifically for young people, with a focus on educating the next generation on financial literacy. Powered by embedded finance specialist, The PayFirm and data-driven cloud native core banking engine, SaaScada, Sunshine+Kittens is set to disrupt the young person finance industry with cool designs and gamified experiences that make learning fun.
With a user-centric ethos and creative design, the Sunshine+Kittens team combines talent from Disney, Star Wars, and Universal. Co-founders Charles O’Neil and Paul Jason have been joined by big industry players such as renowned designer Jake Lunt Davies, the creator of the iconic BB8 Star Wars character and David Arnold, one of the world’s top film composers.
Sunshine+Kittens is a character-driven, fun and feature-rich app that will include:
- Visually appealing interface with iconic characters, built with kids in mind, by an industry leading artist, making them assets in their own right
- Rewards and incentives that reinforce and encourage good habits by gamifying learning
- Interactive learning with tasks and challenges to increase engagement and information retention, which result in rewards
- AI-enabled personalisation to tailor experiences to each child and how they learn
"If you're a kid, money is an idea, a word, a grown-up concept and it’s definitely no fun. But this app not only teaches about money, but it is also a cinematic and contagious game-playing world; one I wanted to get involved with from the moment I saw it" says David Arnold, Film Composer and Producer.
Charles O’Neil, Sunshine+Kittens Co-Founder commented: “We want to be a force for good in the market. Financial literacy, or lack thereof, is one of the greatest inhibitors to social mobility and economic wellbeing. The BNPL generation has amassed huge debts that they don’t really understand. Levels of financial literacy amongst adults is almost non-existent – so if the parents haven’t been educated on this stuff, who is there to teach the kids?
“As a parent myself, I want to ensure the next generation can manage their finances responsibly. But if you look at the solutions currently available, they are more likely to send kids to sleep than teach them anything. The best way to engage kids is by making learning part of their everyday lives, making it something they want to come back to and interact with.”
Sunshine+Kittens is partnering with The PayFirm to build a secure payments platform to bring to life its revolutionary educational concept. With extensive experience and expertise in the financial industry, The PayFirm provides a safe and secure banking environment, by providing an API that embeds finance within and will power the Sunshine+Kittens app.
Proven at scale, SaaScada provides the engine behind The PayFirm payment platform. SaaScada’s event-driven architecture enables the Sunshine+Kitten team to tap into a rich vein of real-time transaction data, giving a single trusted view of each user. This insight will help Sunshine+Kittens to personalise the user journey, safeguard against double spending and enable greater account transparency.
Moreover, SaaScada’s API-enabled approach has allowed Sunshine+Kittens to create a unique ecosystem of best-of-breed partners to provide the very best user experience, while giving its development teams full control over adding new features quickly and easily. And as The PayFirm is a regulated EMI, it can manage the technical and regulatory responsibilities on Sunshine+Kittens’ behalf, allowing Sunshine+Kittens to focus on creating a fantastic user experience.
Sunshine+Kittens Co-Founder, Paul Jason, commented: “Kids today are used to slick, fast and interactive digital experiences. They are a gaming generation and therefore tough customers to impress. We are taking a very user-driven approach, so we need a responsive platform that allows us to create those unique experiences, which means partnering with the very best. SaaScada was the clear choice for us. Its platform is very modular, with a plug and play approach that allows us to bring in any partners we want to work with. And the real-time data on transactions creates a positive feedback loop that helps us to keep the user engaged, which will be key to our ongoing development as we grow.”
Nelson Wootton, CEO and Co-Founder of SaaScada added: “We love working with companies like Sunshine+Kittens. Poor financial literacy is such a huge problem, not just in the UK but around the world. We need more solutions like this that can help to bridge those knowledge gaps and get kids interested in money in a positive way. We can’t wait to see where this goes.”
Gary Prince, CEO of The PayFirm said: “From the moment Charles and I sat next to each other at an awards dinner and started talking about Sunshine+Kittens, it quickly became clear we shared a similar passion to disrupt the status quo and, in the process, drive the improvement of financial literacy in society. We are delighted to be part of what they are building, their solution is far more than just about payments, and we are looking forward to being on this journey with them.” Companies in this story: The PayFirm, SaaScada, Mastercard, Sunshine + Kittens
People in this story: Paul Jason, Gary Prince, Charles O’Neil, Nelson Wootton