Twenty-year-old Duke University student, Bolun Li, became the youngest presenter to win “Best of Show” at Finovate. Bolun introduced his startup’s app, Zogo, which pays teens to learn financial literacy.
The startup claimed audiences’ vote against seventy-eight international companies, including serial entrepreneur, Kevin O’Leary, who was also among the presenters.
Li demonstrated the Zogo app to over 1,500 banking executives, venture capitalists, regulators and entrepreneurs from around the world. Previous showcase winners include companies like Mint and Credit Karma.
After experiencing how the lack of financial literacy affected his first post-exit success, the Zogo co-founder knew most young people struggled with this issue. Li envisioned creating financial literacy tool to supplement traditional school programs.
The learning platform teaches teens through 300+ bite-sized learning modules with topics ranging from simple subject matters like budgeting to more complex themes such as investing. Each module consists of five concepts that are tested with a short quiz.
Users can earn points, in the form of pineapples, that are redeemed as gift cards to stores like Amazon, Sephora, and Adidas.
Zogo is participating in the MetLife Digital Accelerator powered by Techstars, and will make a big announcement during Demo Day on October 10th in Raleigh, North Carolina. Follow Zogo live on Twitter @ZogoFinance to hear the update.