Investments, pensions, or loans: money affects us all, so financial knowledge should not be a privilege. In addition to books and further education, there were a wide range of digital tools sharing experiences and advice. Podcasts and social media posts also played an important role in spreading information.
Nevertheless, financial knowledge remained unevenly distributed across society. How could financial education be made more accessible to everyone? Which creative ideas and digital solutions helped make the complexity of the topic easier to understand? And how could financial discrimination and inequality be reduced? Three startups pitched their ideas for democratizing financial education and then discussed the skills gap in our society with Hamburg’s Finance Senator Andreas Dressel.
Startup profiles at a glance
Christian Binder is the founder and CEO of Finstep Solutions GmbH. The company aims to empower teenagers and young adults to act financially independently and make informed decisions. At its core is a financial education app that teaches basic financial knowledge in an entertaining way and provides practical tools for managing money. At the same time, the platform is available to banks as a “Gen Z as a Service” solution, enabling them to offer financial literacy and targeted services without having to develop their own product.
Selina Haupt is co-founder of the fintech company moneten, which aims to make access to finance easier and close financial gender gaps through personalized financial learning journeys. Before founding the company, she worked in the finance and insurance industry in innovation and product management, where her startup idea also originated.
Jes Hennig is a German fintech entrepreneur with experience in the banking sector. After studying socioeconomics and business administration, he worked at Commerzbank and later as Vice President at JPMorgan Chase in London. In 2020, he founded the neobank Ruuky for Generation Z, which gained more than 250,000 users but had to file for insolvency after a failed financing round. Following the sale of Ruuky, Hennig joined Forget Finance as Chief Commercial Officer. He is currently developing Parto, a banking offering for the social economy.
Impressions
Selina Haupt, Moneten Johann Floeter 
Christian Binder, Finstep Johann Floeter 
Jes Hennig, Parto Johann Floeter 
Anissa Brinkhoff, Moderaton Johann Floeter 
Andreas Dressel, Senator für Finanzen Hamburg Johann Floeter 
Panelbesetzung