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

4 years 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

Microsoft Plans $10 Billion-Plus Gulf Expansion Despite Iran Conflict

Security is shaping Microsoft’s approach, from resilience work with governments to what it will say about how the money splits by country.

Published

4 days ago

September 24, 2026

Nour Nasir

Microsoft

Microsoft is planning more than $10 billion of investment across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait through 2030, Vice Chair and President Brad Smith told Reuters, calling the spending schedule aggressive. The Iranian conflict that began on February 28 has not persuaded the company to scale back.

“We’re sustaining all the investments we planned to make before this conflict started, and we are in fact adding to them,” Smith said. The $10 billion-plus total does not, however, show how large those additions are.

The investment, which Smith described as part of Microsoft’s continued infrastructure expansion, is aimed at cloud and AI infrastructure and at the company’s growing regional operations. Microsoft also intends to put more than $400 million into subsea and terrestrial connectivity across the Middle East by 2030.

The spending fits the region’s own ambitions too. Gulf governments have been investing heavily in AI infrastructure as part of a push to diversify their economies beyond oil and gas and turn themselves into global technology hubs. Major cloud and AI providers have been drawn in part by the land and relatively low-cost energy on offer.

Microsoft is widening its partnerships with regional AI companies, though not on identical terms. In 2024, it invested $1.5 billion in Abu Dhabi-based G42 for a minority stake, and Smith currently sits on G42’s board. Saudi Arabia’s Humain and Qatar’s Qai are working with Microsoft on selected priority areas, but Smith said the company does not plan to make capital investments in either.

Also Read: Egypt’s Mobile Wallets Are Booming, But Cash Still Has Power

The conflict has added another strand to Microsoft’s work in the region. Since it began, Smith said, the company has supported regional partners with digital resilience assessments, and it is now working with Gulf countries through a digital resilience initiative focused on preparedness and the protection of critical data.

So far, the company has given no country-by-country breakdown of the investment, citing security among other factors. So while the headline figure is public, how Microsoft divides the spending among the four countries is not.