Barclays has agreed a £180million deal to acquire the UK arm of children’s banking platform GoHenry, strengthening its presence in the fast-growing market for youth financial education.
The transaction, announced on Friday, will see the high street lender take ownership of a platform used by more than half a million children across Britain.
GoHenry offers financial education tools for young people aged between six and 18, providing prepaid debit cards and junior ISAs designed to help families introduce children to saving, spending and budgeting.
The deal will see Barclays acquire GoHenry’s UK operations from American fintech company Acorns, which purchased the business three years ago.
Acorns will retain GoHenry’s US business as well as Pixpay, its European financial technology platform.
GoHenry was founded in 2012 by chief executive Louise Hill alongside two fathers whose children attended the same school.
The founders came up with the idea after noticing their children were accumulating unexpected charges through services such as iTunes, prompting them to create a tool that could help teach financial responsibility.
The company takes its name from the first child to test its prepaid debit card product.
While the other founders have since departed, Ms Hill remains at the helm of the business as chief executive.
Barclays snaps up GoHenry in £180million deal to expand youth banking offering
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Speaking about the acquisition, Ms Hill said: “I think together with Barclays it means we can reach a lot more kids, which has always been our aim.”
She added: “It enables us to offer GoHenry members a pathway to continue their money journey when they hit 18, because financial education shouldn’t have a start or end date.”
The acquisition marks the latest deal completed by Barclays as part of a wider expansion strategy under chief executive CS Venkatakrishnan, who has led the bank since November 2021.
Since taking charge, Mr Venkatakrishnan has overseen a series of acquisitions aimed at broadening the bank’s reach across different areas of financial services.
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The lender also agreed to acquire US personal lending company Best Egg for $800million in October last year
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In 2022, Barclays paid £2.3billion for Kensington Mortgages before acquiring most of Tesco Bank’s operations in a deal worth around £600million.
Barclays has also pursued larger takeover opportunities but has been unsuccessful on several occasions.
The bank reportedly explored a deal for TSB last year but was outbid by Santander UK, which agreed a £2.65billion acquisition of the lender from Sabadell.
Earlier this year, NatWest defeated Barclays in the race to acquire wealth management business Evelyn Partners, completing a £2.7billion takeover.
Vim Maru, head of Barclays UK, said the latest purchase would strengthen the bank’s offering for families.
Mr Maru said: “It will turbocharge our offering for households and families.”
He added that the acquisition supports Barclays’ ambition to provide banking services throughout every stage of a customer’s life, from opening a first account to saving for retirement.
Barclays said it intends to retain the GoHenry brand and continue operating the platform through its existing standalone app.
The strategy mirrors NatWest’s acquisition of children’s banking app Rooster in 2021.
Analysts at UBS noted that Rooster has since expanded its customer base by a factor of 15 and retained 97 per cent of users as they moved into adult banking products.
Financial filings submitted to Companies House show GoHenry reduced its pre-tax losses to £21.9million during 2024, compared with losses of £48million a year earlier.
The acquisition remains subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to complete during the final quarter of 2026.