US fintech startup Current has raised $3.6 million as it prepares to roll out an app and card-based allowance management service for parents and their kids.
The round was led by original Current backers Expa and Human Ventures, as well as Future Perfect Ventures and others.
Founded by Wall Street veteran Stuart Sopp, Current describes itself as a new kind of financial services firm, with a banking and payments platform built for the connected world.
Last year the firm rolled out a feature that lets people pay co-workers within Slack, and it says that it plans to let users connect their bank accounts to a host of other social platforms, including Kik, Facebook Messenger and iMessage, in the future.
However, its immediate focus is a debit card that parents can connect to their bank accounts and give to their kids, adding funds through automated or one off transfers.
An app provides notifications, insights into spending and parental controls. Children can use the card wherever Visa is accepted and learn to manage their money in current, savings and 'giving' accounts, the latter designed for putting aside money to give to charity.
In a post on Medium, Sopp says "giving back" is an important part of Current "to help fill the void that traditional banks left behind in shedding the community presence that had underpinned their local growth strategies".