News

New Fintech App Aims To Improve Children’s Financial Literacy

A startup known as Leap has built an app to help kids track where their money is being spent, and to help them save more effectively.

Published

1 year ago

November 16, 2022

Nour Nasir

new fintech app aims to improve children's financial literacy

For children and young teens, it can be hard (and not to mention boring!) to get a handle on topics such as budgeting and saving. Money and financial matters aren’t exactly a top priority for youngsters, but they are vital subjects to master in order to be better prepared for adult life.

To that end, UAE-based startup Leap has an ambitious goal of helping young people to make better financial decisions and to improve basic money management skills and literacy. The fintech company has developed an app aimed at young people and their parents, which works to incentivize good budgeting and saving habits.

“Financial literacy is a core life skill that is not readily taught while growing up. Most kids get their first taste of financial responsibility when they go off to college without the oversight and knowledge on managing their money. We’re committed to changing this reality and empowering kids as young as 6 years old to understand, value, and manage their money,” says Ziad Toqan, CEO and Co-founder of Leap.

Parents can transfer a child’s allowance into the app or have funds appear when certain milestones are achieved (such as good school grades). Children using the service will get a prepaid Visa card linked to their Leap account, allowing them to use their balance however they see fit.

Also Read: Egyptian Digital Lending Platform Blnk Raises $32 Million

As well as helping to promote better budgeting and sensible spending, the app also diverts unused funds to a savings account at the end of each week, which Leap hopes will encourage kids to spend less and save more.

The app is available on both Apple and Android devices and is suitable for children between 6 and 18 years of age. Leap is currently focused on the UAE, but has plans to expand into Saudi Arabia and Egypt in the future.

News

Orchid Plans To Find Out What’s Wrong With You Before You’re Born

According to CEO Noor Siddiqui, the company isn’t on a mission to make designer babies, but aims to beat genetic odds and relieve suffering.

Published

35 mins ago

May 7, 2024

Nour Nasir

Orchid

Each day, around 400,000 babies are welcomed into the world. However, among those, a growing number will experience some kind of birth defect or inherited disease.

Noor Siddiqui, CEO of Orchid, hopes to “mitigate” unpleasant genetic surprises using genome sequencing technology to reveal a wealth of genetic information on which newborns will grow into healthy adults.

Until 2019, IVF specialists had access to under 1% of the human genome. The tests, called PGT-A and PGT-M, scanned a mere 1,000 data points in a genome comprising around 3 billion bases, offering a very limited dataset compared to the technology used by Orchid.

“Our chromosomes are like chapters in a book that make up the table of contents.” Explained Siddiqui. “[PGT-A and PGT-M tests] only examine the table of contents, whereas what Orchid is doing is like a spellcheck on the entire book.” Orchid’s genome sampling technology assesses “100 times the data, covering many more conditions.” In essence, an Orchid report covers three categories of common genetic issues: monogenic disorders, polygenic conditions, and de-novo mutations.

Also Read: Advancing MENA Health Through AI Vascular Age Analysis

Orchid’s technology raises many questions. Aside from the obvious ethical concerns, data privacy is the most obvious potential issue with the tests. Noor Siddiqui is keen to alleviate any concerns: “No data at Orchid is ever sold to any third parties. Parents are in complete control of their data. If they want to delete the data, we’re happy to delete it off of our servers. If they want to export the data, they can export the data. And if they want us to re-analyze the data, we can re-analyze the data”.

Compared to a lifetime of medical bills, gene therapy, and suffering, Orchid’s genome screening report has the potential to change the future lives of thousands of newborns worldwide.