Spriggy, the children’s pocket money fintech that’s been used by more than 1.3 million Australians, is shutting down Spriggy Invest, promising a “bigger and better” alternative in 2026.
The fintech, which has raised nearly $60 million, and counts NAB Ventures and Grok, the family fund of Atlassian billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes, among its investors, emailed users on Thursday saying the app will shut down on August 30, with funds fully returned to customers.
“Firstly, we want to thank you for your support over the past four and a half years. We set out on a mission to create a simple, jargon-free investment product for parents to invest for their children’s future and to help them educate their kids along the way. Whilst we still believe strongly in this mission, regretfully we don’t believe we could take the next steps in achieving this with our current product offering,” the email said.
“We have taken in the customer feedback and are currently working towards a product that would achieve this mission. We really appreciate the support and feedback over the years and you will be the first to hear from us when it is ready.”
The popular Spriggy pocket money and gamified financial education app continues.
CEO Alex Badran said they launched ‘Spriggy Invest’ as a stand-alone app four and a half years ago to make investing simple and educational for parents and kids; and alongside the positive feedback, it validated the need for an investment experience designed for families.
Spriggy Invest launched in 2020 as a way for parents to invest in Australian and US stocks for their children, with as little as 50%. The investment options included global tech as well as leading listed brands such as Woolworths, CBA, Apple, Amazon, Telstra and Google, via exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
Image: Spriggy
Spriggy was founded by former Citibank derivatives traders Alex Badran and Mario Hasanakos in 2015 with $300,000 in Seed funding before launching in 2016. It’s a mobile app and prepaid card for kids aged 6-17 to help families teach their children about finance in the digital era, and saving and spending. The credit cards can be illustrated with pop culture movie characters from Frozen, Star Wars and the Lion King, among others
Grok backed Spriggy, which emerged out of Cache Invest, from the start, and also led the $12 million Series A round in 2019. NAB Ventures chipped in to lead 2021’s $35m Series B and in June 2022, the fintech topped up with another $10m. Alium Capital and Perennial Value Management are also on the cap table.
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