Blackbullion, the award winning edtech company transforming students’ lives through financial literacy, has secured second-round investment of £400K ($525K). 

This second tranche of funding was led by Lord Stanley Fink, who will also join the startup’s board, as Chairman. Additional investments came from MPA Education, Emerge Education and JISC, the membership organisation providing digital solutions for UK education and research. It brings the total raised by Blackbullion to £1 million and will be directed towards  new product development and expanding its existing suite of solutions for universities.

Founded by former wealth manager, Vivi Friedgut in 2014, Blackbullion has set the challenge to deliver a robust and empowering financial education to a million students within the next two years. 

“Money is the last great taboo and it’s our goal to ensure an engaging and effective financial education for young people,” comments Vivi Friedgut. “We’re seeing more universities look at making financial learning mandatory but there’s still a way to go.   Working in partnership with universities means we can drive understanding, empower students with real-world money skills, and help build the confidence and tools they need to design the life they want beyond graduation.”

Blackbullion  currently supports 500,000 students across the UK, Australia and New Zealand, through partner universities, including King’s College London, The University of Edinburgh, and the University of South Australia. The start-up has a strong track record in widening participation cohorts, especially for first-in-family students. Its platform is actively used as part of  partner university student retention strategies. 

 Lord Fink says: “Forty years in the financial services world and I’m always surprised how young people lack understanding on the topic –  especially given how much we know about the impact of financial stress. I’m a huge fan of how Blackbullion’s thoughtful products have the potential to change students’ lives.”

Melody Lang, Advisor and Investor at MPA Education summarised their decision to invest in Blackbullion: “Very excited to be backing a company with such an important mission, but also one of the most impressive founders I ever met. Vivi’s creating a real legacy through her tech for good ethos and this platform.”

Jan Lynn-Matern, CEO and Co-founder at Emerge Education, added, “Financial education is one of the fundamental pillars of becoming a well-rounded adult.  Despite its importance, it remains very underrepresented in today’s education systems – from schools to universities. We’re thrilled to support Blackbullion in its mission to bring this crucial life skill closer to universities and students, and continue its exciting growth journey.”

The company, which won Edtech Launchpad and was a Financial Innovation Awards finalist, is considering a future raise to drive its global expansion plans.

About Blackbullion

Blackbullion is the award-winning financial education company on a mission to help young people gain financial skills for life. Powered by a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) subscription model, Blackbullion partners with higher education institutions to deliver engaging and effective personalised learning to encourage shifts in financial behaviour of students around the world. Founded in 2014, Blackbullion currently supports university students, with over 500,000 having access to their learning platform.

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