Evan Leaphart is keeping the financial future of the next generation in mind.
Kiddie Kredit
As AfroTech previously reported, through his Miami-based startup Kiddie Kredit, the founder helps children learn about credit building in an entertaining way.
“Children turn into young adults who are thrown into the real world at 18 and given a credit card with no real understanding of how to properly utilize it. This early onset of financial mismanagement leads to billions of dollars of bad debt for lower and middle-class households because of higher interest rates,” Leaphart told AfroTech in 2021.
He added, “Kiddie Kredit is a financial literacy tool that teaches kids (K-8) about credit by incentivizing productivity and good behavior. The premise of the app is that the better a child performs their duties/activities, the better their score. We do this by creating a ‘kredit’ score that parallels traditional FICO scoring models.”
Refresh Miami reports the idea stems from his recollection of his time as a college graduate, apartment hunting, and being unemployed. It was during these difficult periods that he learned the value of credit.
Through the initial program, Leaphart taught kids in South Florida about finance and credit. As a result of his passion, he created a mobile application that has reportedly helped nearly 12,000 families.
Features
Using Kiddie Kredit, parents can assign their children activities and chores, and their “kredit score” will shift between 300 and 850 once they complete them. Children could also receive “Bamboo Bucks” or incentives through partners such as Equifax.
“Our mission is to empower credit healthy families. Credit, when utilized properly, is one of the greatest tools to generate wealth. We want to educate about credit responsibly, especially to those who have limited access to capital all in the name of economic inclusion and equality,” said the company on their official website.
