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When her kids took their piggies to market, Dr. Jo Webber wanted to make sure that the transaction was secure and parent-approved.
An entrepreneur and experienced software company CEO with a Ph.D. in quantum physics, Webber was starting her own family in 2008 when she realized that there wasn’t a safe way for kids to make online transactions while learning about financial literacy. She teamed up with fellow entrepreneur and parent Pradeep Ittycheria, and together they created Virtual Piggy, the company behind the app Oink, a virtual wallet aimed at allowing children to learn about money management within parental control.
Now, Virtual Piggy has garnered more than 1 million users, 30 merchants, has raised $39 million since its inception, and is set to launch the new Oink prepaid card for in-person transactions this August.
“We’re definitely not trying to take the parent out of the equation but really help facilitate their involvement in it,” Joanne Wong, VP of marketing at Virtual Piggy, said.
The Oink app was introduced to merchants as Hermosa Beach-based Virtual Piggy in late 2012 and then became available for consumers in spring 2013. After considering feedback from teen users, the company decided to rebrand the app in favor of a pithier name.
“Virtual Piggy is kind of a long name and kind of more formal. They [teen users] had more interest in a fun, shorter name,” Wong said. “The fact that our corporate name is Virtual Piggy really rooted us only in the virtual world, but we know that consumers live in both the digital and physical world.”
She said this is particularly true as the tangible Oink card brings the company into the physical sphere, in addition to its digital presence. While the corporation maintains the Virtual Piggy name and ticker symbol VPIG, it will use Oink when naming its products.
The new card will enable face-to-face purchases, which Wong said are more in-line with mall shoppers—a key focus group for Virtual Piggy.
“Girls’ clothing and accessories…is an area where our demographic tends to be pretty avid in terms of interest in shopping. Especially with the card coming out in August, obviously there’s a lot of those stores in mall, and there’s a bit of synergy with that too,” Wong said, naming bargain boutique Claire’s and brand-name shoe store Journeys as merchant partners.
She also noted the “positive acceptance” of Oink in the video gaming industry, with partners such as Wooz World, a Montreal-based virtual gaming community and social network service for preteens, and K’NEX, a creative construction toy system. Brands for items ranging from home décor to sporting goods are also available to buy from using Oink. These partnerships are a main source of revenue for Virtual Piggy, which charges merchants a fee and allows customers to use the app with no additional cost.
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Merchants can look forward to Oink handling all personal information of the customers, as far as names, addresses and credit card information, Wong said. This helps them adhere to the COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act) regulations, which bars corporations from asking children less than 13 years old for their personal information.
“It helps [ease] parentally-approved transactions from them, which helps them in the end,” she said.
However, Virtual Piggy does recognize teenagers in urban areas as its main user demographic—most buyers fall within the 14- to 20-year-old range, with the core group of users between the ages of 16 and 18. Wong said the male-female ratio is almost even.
For now, Virtual Piggy is expanding with more merchants and more options for users, while maintaining the original goal of financial literacy.
“Oink takes that [transaction] experience and helps root it in the real world. Parents can put an allowance in, and teens can use it to shop in the places they shop in the real world. It’s probably more fun, but at the same time it’s a better learning experience,” Wong said. “Parents like it because with our app, teens can really look and see where they spent their money or what they have in their savings, and maybe feel a little buyers’ remorse.”
