Imagine graduating at 22 with your dream degree and a promising job offer — everything seems set for a smooth journey ahead.

But then reality strikes: bills pile up, you need to start saving, investing, and managing money wisely — yet you were never really taught how.

In India and Southeast Asia, this scenario is all too common. Unlike in many Western countries, teens here rely heavily on their parents for daily expenses and often live with them until graduation. Schools focus on sciences and arts but rarely on financial literacy. As a result, young adults step into the real world without a grasp of budgeting, compound interest, or the impact of careful financial planning on their long-term freedom.

Financial management is best learned by doing — but teenagers typically have limited tools. Most are handed a parent’s secondary card, with little transparency or autonomy, and no modern tools to manage their allowances independently.

78% of teens in India &amp; SE Asia still use cash for daily spending.


45% don’t receive pocket money at all, missing out on learning saving habits.


Teens depend on parents’ cards for online or offline purchases, with no control or visibility.


Financial education is not part of the curriculum, leaving teens vulnerable to costly mistakes later in life.


Yodaa is built in collaboration with its teen community — letting them BYOB: Build Your Own Bank.

With Yodaa, teens gain access to smart saving products that reward good financial decisions and responsible habits. They can also tap into microcredit options to learn healthy borrowing early. Beyond banking tools, Yodaa offers a curated learning platform that unlocks benefits for mastering the basics of personal finance — flipping the norm of rewarding excessive spending to incentivising financial awareness.

Yodaa’s mission is simple yet vital: to empower teens to manage money confidently, make informed decisions, and build a secure financial future — one smart choice at a time.

The Challenge: Community-Driven, Future-Focused

Our goal was clear: build a teen-focused bank that helps young people learn, save, and understand money better — empowering Gen Z with the financial freedom to make their own transactions, both online and offline. Beyond simply providing a product, we wanted to equip the next generation with the skills to manage, save, invest, and spend money responsibly — setting them up for lifelong financial well-being.

But our challenge had two sides. On one hand, we had to earn the trust and interest of teens, designing a banking experience that feels intuitive, joyful, and genuinely empowering. On the other, we needed to reassure parents — giving them visibility, control, and peace of mind while allowing their children to take independent financial steps safely.

Adding to this complexity was the fact that we weren’t just building a product — we were pioneering an entirely new category. As one of the first to tackle teen banking in this region, we had to set the standards, build trust from scratch, and balance freedom with safeguards, all while shaping financial habits that last a lifetime.

During the pandemic, while the world slowed to a halt, we chose to start building something bold — a bank designed specifically for teens.

After finalising the initial brief, we kicked off with a focused survey to uncover the real financial needs of Gen Z. To dig deeper, we followed this up with one-on-one interviews to capture honest pain points and everyday money habits straight from our target users.

These insights revealed key behavioural traits and gaps: how teens handle money today, where they feel restricted, and what would genuinely motivate them to save, spend, and learn.

With this understanding, the product team defined a clear scope: to build a solution that not only met teens’ core financial needs but also wove in social features to make money management feel relevant and fun.

This clarity set the stage for the first design sprint — beginning with rapid wireframing and quick iterations to translate insights into intuitive user flows.

After the wireframing phase, the product team moved swiftly to shape a clear vision for Yodaa — defining exactly what we wanted to build and why. The primary goal was to create a product that naturally instills healthy financial habits in teens, without feeling restrictive or dull.

The final product brief was simple yet ambitious:

**“Yodaa will enable teenagers to send and request money, save and manage their funds, and split bills with siblings and friends. They will also have access to expert-curated learning modules that reward responsible financial behaviour.

For parents, Yodaa offers the safest community their teen can be part of — allowing instant transfers for personal expenses, full visibility of transactions, and the ability to contribute directly to their teen’s stash on the fly.”**

Privacy was set as a top priority from day one. We built robust checks and balances to ensure teens could manage their financial lives with appropriate safeguards: controlling who can view their profile, who can chat or transact with them, and defining what transaction details parents could access — striking a balance between freedom and parental trust.

In the fast-moving world of today, we enable GenZ to transact freely and make financial decisions wiser and simpler. The core design philosophy was to increase the<b> "Happiness Quotient" </b>as the user interacted with the product. Each journey was crafted and iterated to deliver delight to the users.

We weren’t just designing a product — we were shaping a behaviour shift in young teens. Knowing that Yodaa would feel new and unfamiliar, we invested significant time in crafting an onboarding experience that was intuitive, engaging, and self-guided.

One key decision was to include an Explore Module — allowing users to understand Yodaa’s features and get a complete feel for the product before signing up. This early step helped educate new users and build trust from the very first interaction.

We also designed two distinct onboarding flows within the same app: one for Teens and one for Parents. Each flow was iterated meticulously to meet the compliance standards of our banking partners while ensuring the entire process remained smooth and quick — keeping onboarding time under five minutes for every user.

Knowing where money goes is key to building healthy financial habits. With this in mind, we equipped teens with spending insights that help them understand and reflect on their transactions.

We went a step further and introduced an Expense Tracker, allowing teens to record expenses made outside of Yodaa too. Although this wasn’t a direct customer request, we recognised its value as a habit-building tool — encouraging teens to take ownership of all their spending, not just what happens through their card.

For parents, we added the ability to set spending limits for different categories. Importantly, parents can access their teen’s spending data only with the teen’s consent — balancing oversight with respect for privacy and independence.

With Yodaa, we aimed to shift consumer behaviour at its roots — by helping teens develop the habit of saving before spending. Giving young users a real financial tool in their hands made this goal tangible and impactful.

We designed a seamless digital experience where teens could easily set up recurring auto-debit saving plans — as effortless as scheduling a recurring event on Google Calendar.

To strengthen this habit, we brought parents into the journey. Parents can join their teen’s saving plan and add their own contribution at the end of each month — creating an emotional connection and reinforcing the value of long-term saving.

While encouraging saving was the easy part, discouraging impulsive withdrawals was more challenging. Teens need freedom, but breaking their stash prematurely disrupts the habit loop. To address this, we introduced Yo-Cash — a hero feature acting as an emergency cash reserve, so urgent needs don’t require dipping into savings.

Additionally, we deliberately designed a subtle friction in the withdrawal flow. This pause encourages teens to reconsider before tapping into their savings — turning a simple digital moment into a gentle lesson in financial discipline.

From day one, Yodaa has focused on being more than just a payment instrument — it’s designed to feel like a trustworthy friend teens can rely on.

We all know that month-ends can be tight for teenagers. To offer a safety net, we created Yo-Cash — a feature that provides 15 days of interest-free credit. This serves two purposes: giving teens easy access to emergency funds when they need a buffer, and discouraging them from breaking into their savings stash for short-term needs.

Taking this a step further, we introduced an innovative concept in the world of credit finance: the tip fee. Instead of charging traditional interest, teens can choose to leave a small token of thanks to Yodaa for using Yo-Cash — as little as ₹10. This keeps borrowing flexible, light, and friendly — just like a real friend who’s always there when you need a little extra help.

Building a smart, financially confident teen community required more than just banking tools — it called for real learning. We designed a dedicated learning module to help teens understand the world of money and pick up life skills that traditional schools often overlook.

We curated some of the best resources from across the internet, covering topics like history, life lessons, and practical finance. To make learning engaging, many of these lessons come with quizzes and reward teens with Yo Coins, turning knowledge into a fun, rewarding experience.

Building a strong community means giving teens meaningful ways to connect and express themselves. We took a step in this direction by introducing a shareable Yodaa Page and a Discover feature to help teens find others with similar interests.

Each teen’s profile page works like a mini personal website — easy to customise, with space to update their bio and link their social handles. This empowers teens to build and showcase their identity within the Yodaa community.

Meanwhile, the Discover feature lets teens connect with like-minded peers based on age, location, and shared interests. Together, these features weave a social layer into the product, helping Yodaa grow into a vibrant, high-trust community of smart, socially engaged teens.

From the moment we launched, we knew we were entering a fiercely competitive space. We monitored every onboarding and every user action closely, identifying gaps and shaping an action plan to address them quickly and effectively.

Some of the key lessons we learned along the way:

Parents were often too busy to help teens complete onboarding and get their cards approved.


The Indian market strongly prefers freemium models.


Referral programs need to be truly exciting and effortless to drive viral growth.


Armed with these insights, we wasted no time iterating. Some challenges had no quick fixes, but targeted changes boosted our key metrics noticeably.

We reworked our pricing model and introduced a Freemium plan for basic users. We also shifted the onboarding flow to be teen-driven, allowing teens to complete their parents’ KYC and get their card activated with minimal parental effort. These two changes alone significantly improved our conversion rates.

Referral strategies took more experimentation. After testing three different approaches, we settled on a simple, code-based referral program. Attempts at a FOMO-driven model fell short because the rewards weren’t compelling enough and the steps were too complex.

After a year of operations and onboarding over 1,000 paid users, we decided to pause the product and channel our energy towards tackling an even bigger challenge: venturing into the fascinating, yet uncharted, world of crypto.

For us, it’s still Day One — and the journey continues.

By the time we launched Yodaa, I had grown tremendously from where I first began as a designer. If someone had asked me on launch day whether I was happy, I would have only been half truthful if I’d said yes. But looking back now, I feel genuinely proud of what I achieved for Atlantis and Yodaa.

The launch was crucial — it tested our hypotheses in the real world. We got many things right, and we made our fair share of mistakes. Shipping Yodaa exposed what was broken and highlighted areas that needed urgent attention. We also learned that building non-essential, non-critical features can lead to a product that feels less polished than it should.

But this experience shaped us for the better. As a team, we emerged with clearer priorities and stronger discipline. We made a commitment to ourselves and our users: to build only what customers truly want and need. That lesson continues to guide how I approach every project today.

Building a smart financial app and community for Gen Z, which allowed them to learn, invest, and connect. 

In India and Southeast Asia, this scenario is all too common. Unlike in many Western countries, teens here rely heavily on their parents for daily expenses and often live with them until graduation. Schools focus on sciences and arts but rarely on financial literacy. As a result, young adults enter the real world without a grasp of budgeting, compound interest, or the impact of careful financial planning on their long-term financial freedom.

With Yodaa, teens gain access to smart saving products that reward good financial decisions and responsible habits. They can also access microcredit options to learn healthy borrowing practices early. Beyond banking tools, Yodaa offers a curated learning platform that helps users master the basics of personal finance—flipping the norm of rewarding excessive spending to incentivising financial awareness.

In the fast-moving world of today, we enable GenZ to transact freely and make financial decisions wiser and simpler. The core design philosophy was to increase the

as the user interacted with the product. Each journey was crafted and iterated to delight users.

While encouraging saving was the easy part, discouraging impulsive withdrawals was more challenging. Teens need freedom, but breaking their stash prematurely disrupts the habit loop. To address this, we introduced Yo-Cash — a key feature that serves as an emergency cash reserve, so urgent needs don’t require dipping into savings.

We all know that month-ends can be tight for teenagers. To offer a safety net, we created Yo-Cash — a feature that provides 15 days of interest-free credit. This serves two purposes: providing teens with easy access to emergency funds when they need a buffer, and discouraging them from tapping their savings for short-term needs.

Building on this, we introduced an innovative concept in credit finance: the tip fee. Instead of charging traditional interest, teens can choose to leave a small token of appreciation for Yodaa for using Yo-Cash, starting at ₹10. This keeps borrowing flexible, light, and friendly — just like a real friend who’s always there when you need a little extra help.

Building a smart, financially confident teen community required more than just banking tools — it called for real learning. We designed a dedicated learning module to help teens understand money and develop life skills that traditional schools often overlook.

Armed with these insights, we wasted no time iterating. Some challenges had no quick fixes, but targeted changes significantly improved our key metrics.

Launching Banking App for GenZ, which also teaches finance