French startup Kard is a challenger bank for teens

PARIS: Meet French startup Kard, a challenger bank that works a lot like N26 or Revolut. But Kard is all about convincing teens that their first bank account is going to be a Kard account - a bit like Step in the U.S.

When I talked with Kard co-founder and CEO Scott Gordon, he kept saying that Kard was a product for Generation Z. While I'm not a fan of that buzzword, it still looks like a well-designed app with some personality.

"Gen Z is a generation that has been forgotten by traditional banks," Gordon said. "Seventy percent of their transactions are digital transactions," he added later. Many teenagers borrow their parents' card for those expenses.

Kard wants to empower teens with their own bank account, their own IBAN and their own Mastercard debit card. Instead of controlling every expense, parents can just top up the Kard account and let their child spend it however they want - you can top up with a bank transfer or using another card - just like in Revolut. Opening an account is free.

Like other electronic wallet apps, opening a Kard account is much simpler than opening a traditional bank account in France. You can sign up in a few minutes from your phone and confirm your identity later by sending a photo of your ID, etc. After that, you get an account that you control from a mobile app. You can block and unblock the card, see transactions and send and receive money in real time with other Kard users. It ticks all the right boxes that you've come to expect if you have a bank account from a challenger bank.