Family banking
Lark
Pocket money with training wheels
- Sector
- Family banking
- Location
- Riyadh, KSA
- Year
- 2026
- Kickoff to production
- 18 weeks
A family account where a parent sets the boundaries once and a teenager gets a real card, real limits and a first lesson in money.
The bank's teen product was the adult app with features removed, so parents had no visibility and teenagers had no reason to open it. Allowances went out in cash, and blocking a merchant meant calling the branch.
- 01
Two apps, one account
Parent and teen see the same account through different lenses. The parent sets limits, categories and chores; the teen sees a balance, a goal and what they can actually spend.
- 02
Limits that teach
Category blocks, daily caps and savings goals are shown to the teenager as the rules of a game rather than as refusals from a bank.
- 03
Tested with fourteen-year-olds
Four rounds with families in Riyadh. What changed between rounds was the Arabic wording, not the feature list.
Allowances moved off cash, parents stayed in the app long after setup, and the product now brings whole families to the bank instead of one account holder.
What changed
- Parent + teen
- Family account
- With real limits
- Real card
- For whole households
- Banking entry
Stack
- React Native
- Node.js
- Postgres
- Supabase
- Braze
Disciplines applied
- Financial technology
- Brand & growth strategy
- Custom software development
