Stack banks $2.7 million to teach teens, parents about crypto • TechCrunch
For the price of a cup of coffee, your teenager can learn to invest in cryptocurrency.
Today, Stack released what CEO Will Rush says is “the first crypto education and trading app for teenagers and their parents.”
The subscription-based app costs $3 per month per user and is available for Android. It was designed with Gen Z in mind, a generation that will grow up with blockchain and most likely own some sort of digital asset,” Rush told TechCrunch.
He co-founded the company with CTO Natalie Young and CCO Angela Mascarenas in 2021. The founding team has an eclectic background that includes youth fintech app Copper and securities for Rush, while Mascarenas helped digitize the cookie ordering system for Girl Scouts and Young was a T-Mobile -engineer.
While at Copper, Rush led efforts to teach kids about investing, but found that replacing the word “stock” with “crypto” led to more engagement. He’d also see Reddit posts from teenagers trying to get into crypto using their parents’ information to set up an account on exchanges like Coinbase or Robinhood and have them get frozen — and rightfully so — because they’re not of legal age have an account.
“Obviously, this was a thesis that no one was making a breakthrough effort on,” Rush told TechCrunch. “How can we be the good guys and create a safe and educational ecosystem?”
Coinbase and Robinhood already dominate the crypto exchange space, but Rush believes Stack stands out from the crowd by offering features such as access to the tax and control benefits of a Uniform Transfers to Minors Act (UTMA) account and a trading environment designed specifically for teenagers. And when teenage users turn 18, the assets are transferred to their names. Users can also earn rewards as they learn, which can lead to them getting the app for free.
It also limits the assets offered to protect users, Rush said. It will start with seven cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and Cardano. Stack also doesn’t allow off-platform transfers, which Rush believes will cut down on up to 98% of the cryptocurrency fraud and scams that plague exchanges.
“By making those few decisions, we believe we can offer a better educational product,” he added.
Meanwhile, the app launches with more than 6,000 users on its waiting list and follows a $2.7 million investment from Madrona, The Venture Collective, Santa Clara Ventures and a group of angel and individual investors. The new investment brings Stack just over $3 million in total funding to date.
The new capital infusion will enable the company to continue to build out its app and high school-focused financial literacy program. Rush also wants Stack to get more financial licenses and expand its offerings. The company currently has eight employees, and he expects to hire two more this year.
Next, the company will perform what Rush calls “a more thoughtful overhaul of its educational content” that includes creating compelling financial content similar to what’s popular on TikTok and YouTube.
“We need a big boost to make it relevant to teenagers and looking at educational topics like NFT, metaverse and web3,” he said. “We aim to be the trusted account to democratize investing for young people.”
Edited to change the name of the company to Stack instead of Stack.io.
