Barclays, apparently determined to own the financial lives of Britons from cradle to grave, has agreed to buy GoHenry, the app that teaches children how to manage money - or at least how to spend it with a card that has their name on it. The high street bank will acquire the UK business from US fintech Acorns, which keeps GoHenry's US branch. The price is undisclosed, obviously, because why let a little thing like transparency get in the way of a good deal? The deal is expected to complete next year, and the app will keep its brand, which is a relief to all the kids who have already memorized the logo.
GoHenry, founded in 2012 by Louise Hill, a mother of two who apparently overheard other parents complaining about their children's spending habits at school pickup (the universal origin story of all fintech startups), offers prepaid debit cards with parental controls and a money management app for six- to 18-year-olds. About 500,000 children in the UK currently have GoHenry accounts, which means 500,000 kids are learning the fine art of saving, investing, and completing money lessons, all while their parents hover over them like financial hawks.
The business was reportedly valued at between $250m and $500m in 2022. Hill sold it to Acorns the following year and remained executive chair, presumably to keep an eye on her brainchild. Barclays UK chief executive Vim Maru said the acquisition would 'turbocharge' the bank's offering for households and families - which is banker-speak for 'we want your kids' pocket money, and eventually their mortgages.'
Hill, ever the optimist, said the brand 'isn't going anywhere' but can 'do more' under Barclays' ownership. 'It also enables us to offer GoHenry members a pathway to continue their money journey when they hit 18, because financial education shouldn't have a start or end date,' she said. Translation: once a GoHenry kid, always a Barclays customer. The company has over 2 million customers across France, Spain, Italy, the US, and the UK, and employs about 200 people.
Fun fact: the business was originally called PKTMNY, pronounced 'pocket money,' which Hill later called 'stupid' - a rare moment of self-awareness in the fintech world. 'Nobody could say it and nobody could spell it, it was a really silly idea,' she told Sky News in 2024. The name changed about 18 months later, inspired by its first customer, an 11-year-old boy named Henry from Bristol. So yes, the entire company is named after a child who probably got a free debit card for life.
The takeover gives Barclays a bigger foothold in the youth banking market, just as established banks are trying to fend off fintech rivals like Revolut and Monzo, which launched interest-bearing savings accounts for children as young as six last year. Because nothing says 'healthy financial habits' like a six-year-old checking their interest rates. Barclays is also playing catch-up with NatWest, which bought RoosterMoney in late 2021, proving that the battle for your kids' allowances is the new front in banking.
Benjamin Toms, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, noted that GoHenry has been loss-making, so this acquisition is more about 'cross-selling and customer inertia' - because UK consumers rarely switch banks. 'This is about acquiring customers, which is expensive in the UK, where there is quite large inertia … They're not really getting large deposit balances, but are deepening the relationship with families and getting more engrained, more embedded, in a way that makes it more difficult to lose those customers as they get older,' he said. So it's not about the money in the kids' accounts; it's about locking in their parents' loyalty for decades.
High street banks are increasingly targeting wealthy families for growth, as they look to rely less on income from everyday loans tied to interest rates. Barclays was recently defeated by NatWest in a bidding war for wealth manager Evelyn Partners, and Lloyds has taken full control of its venture with Schroders, rebranding it as Lloyds Wealth with £17bn in assets under administration and 60,000 clients. Barclays also told investors that the GoHenry acquisition would reduce its CET1 ratio - a key measure of financial health - by about five basis points, but it won't affect financial targets for 2026 or 2028. Shares in the FTSE 100 bank rose nearly 5% on Friday, because nothing boosts investor confidence like buying a money app for kids.