Zandeo

Zandeo AI is a licensing and white-label financial education platform that Banks, FinTechs and Financial Service Providers (FSPs) integrate into their existing infrastructure to understand and engage the next generation of customers.

Key differentiator: We’re the first platform specifically building AI to support parents in their families’ financial journeys whilst providing youth and family-focused behavioural insights to FSPs.

The platform includes context-aware AI that guides parent-child money conversations, scaffolded curricula based on behavioural and economics psychology research, and real-time behavioural analytics identifying product readiness signals. Our AI analyses family financial behaviours, delivers personalised learning content in multiple languages, and provides FSPs with predictive insights about future high-value customers.

For FSPs, we provide intelligence about family financial patterns, creating qualified leads while delivering measurable CSI impact. Our AI grows smarter with every interaction, building a defensible data moat that identifies tomorrow’s high-value customers today.

For families, we make financial education accessible in any language. Our AI adapts to each child’s learning style, providing parents with the right words at the right moments to turn questions into teachable moments.

UN SDG Impact: Zandeo addresses SDG 1 (No Poverty) by building financial capability from childhood, breaking intergenerational poverty cycles through practical money management skills. We advance SDG 4 (Quality Education) by democratising financial literacy across all socioeconomic levels and languages, ensuring every child – regardless of their parents’ financial confidence – receives foundational economic education. By embedding giving and community impact into our curriculum, we foster a generation that understands both personal financial success and social responsibility, creating sustainable economic empowerment at the household level.

In June 2024 co-founder Hex’s then 9-year-old daughter Christina, who’d been receiving allowance for 4 years, asked why her younger brother Alexandro earned more interest despite receiving less allowance. At this point it was all manual, with drawings and abacuses (we still have the drawing in my notebook). This question crystallised what Hex had been experiencing for years – the complete lack of integrated financial education tools.

By March 2025, after extensive research including discussions on The Money Show with financial education experts, Hex and co-founder Craig realised the tools needed to help children build financial foundations were missing. Every parent they spoke to was asking the same questions: “How do I help my child become financially independent?” “What if I’m not confident with money myself?” “Where do I find the time to teach them?”

Zandeo bridges the gap between Banks, Fintech, and FSPs’ youth products, and families’ need for financial education. Our patent-pending methodology transforms everyday money moments into learning opportunities, helping parents become confident financial mentors regardless of their own financial literacy.

We pivoted from B2C to B2B after FSP meetings revealed they didn’t need another app – they needed behavioural insights and educational tools. We’re currently in Phase 2 with our RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) implementation on Google Cloud, we’ve validated our approach with 20+ testing families, and secured advanced discussions with a South African FSP for their 2026 youth banking launch.

Our journey from frustrated parents to building an AI-powered family financial education platform reflects our mission: empowering every child to enter adulthood with the confidence, experience, and skills to manage money wisely. We’re not just building technology – we’re creating a generation of financially capable adults through real experience, guided mentorship, and structured practice.

Hex Novoa – Founder and CEO

20+ years in leadership, operations and strategy, with an MBA and experience in finance, UX-UI, and AI.

Hex handles sales, front-end development and built the Zandeo AI context constrained RAG architecture.

Craig Gibson – Founder and CTO

Senior FinTech engineer with 10+ years building scalable mobile and banking apps in South Africa and the US.

Craig focuses on backend architecture and reviews all code.

Tony Garcia – Scotland Partner

Author and Civil Servant in the Scottish Government. 20+ years in leadership, operations and strategy.

Tony acts as liaison for our European Partners, Max Lauker (Sweden) and Kostiantyn Koshelenko (Ukraine).

Tony, Hex and Max produce a podcast series – informational and complimentary content that helps parents understand financial mentorship and the Zandeo platform.