Emerge
SquareOne is New Zealand's first money app for children, giving each child a prepaid debit card and an in-app savings balance that parents monitor.
- Category
- AI and B2B SaaS
- Fund
- NZVC I
- Website
- www.emerge.nz
- On TechMates
- 2 episodes
What Emerge does
Children earn through chores, set savings goals, and learn to manage money through hands-on use, while parents keep oversight and can lock or unlock the card at any time. Jamie Jermain and Jovan Pavlicevic founded it in 2021, and after seed investment from Altered Capital the company went on to become Emerge, an SME challenger bank.
The secret
Financial capability sticks when the money is real. Letting a child earn, save and spend on their own card with a parent holding the controls teaches more than any lesson does, and the same rails the founders built for that turned out to support a challenger bank for small businesses.
Why NZVC invested in Emerge
NZVC invested in Emerge from NZVC Fund I. We file the company under AI and B2B SaaS on the portfolio wall.
We invested in SquareOne because financial capability is rarely taught well, and parents actively want a safe, practical way to build money habits in their kids early. The product teaches through real earning, saving, and spending with strong parental controls, which is far stickier than lessons alone and has already drawn a large base of families. The founders built it to solve a problem in their own homes, and their Mastercard partnership gives the platform durable rails to grow on.
In the founder's words
“A lot of investors make a point of saying they can add value - but you guys really walk the talk.”
Emerge in the press
- EdTech in the Spotlight: SquareOne Empowers Financial Literacy for Kiwi KidsEdTechNZ · 22 April 2025
- SquareOne + Thinkerbell Aotearoa explore what happens when kids don't learn financial literacyCampaign Brief NZ · 5 February 2025
- SquareOne became Emerge and launched a banking offer for small businessesNBR · 28 March 2024
- Two Northland fathers built New Zealand's first money app for childrenNZ Herald · 8 February 2022
- SquareOne moved from children's pocket money to small business bankingCaffeine (via Emerge)
Emerge on TechMates
Fintech Frontiers: Reinventing Money from the Edge of the World | NZVC Portfolio Day
You hear three founders describe what it takes to build fintech in a country where four Australian banks own the market. Jovan Pavlicevic on lobbying to start a bank, Dermot Butterfield on open banking pipes, and Steven Zinsli on making public transport tax-free through product design.
A joint episode, alongside Wych and Extraordinary.
Emerge on TechMates
Kiwi Startup Builds a Bank
You hear a volunteer firefighter explain how he launched a bank during lockdown with no connections and no capital. Jovan Pavlicevic lays out why New Zealand banking is so profitable and so outdated, and how Square One got 200,000 kids learning about money.
- How Jovan launched a fintech startup in the middle of a lockdown.
- Why big banks are untouchable, and how Emerge is breaking in.
- The secret to starting a business with zero connections or capital.
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