2mins: The startup tackling Britain’s financial literacy crisis

The UK faces a significant financial literacy crisis, as evidenced by the 2024 Santander study which found that only 47% of UK adults could answer at least five out of seven financial knowledge questions correctly. This is in stark contrast to the 62% of adults across OECD countries who demonstrated similar financial understanding.

Furthermore, only 1% of primary school teachers felt their pupils had adequate financial skills. The government is addressing this issue by expanding financial literacy through curriculum mandates and the HM Treasury's Financial Inclusion Strategy, which will make financial education statutory in primary schools starting in Autumn 2028.

However, critics argue that this alone will not be enough to prepare millions of children for real-life financial situations.

Driven by this challenge, Emily Boxall and her father, Chris, founded the edTech startup 2mins to tackle the growing problem. The idea for 2mins originated from Chris's interactions with clients at Fundamental Asset Management, who valued plain-English clarity over industry jargon. Emily, who shares this approach, explains that the team developed 2mins as an app designed to teach users about money through engaging and challenging games.

Since its launch in January, 2mins has garnered over 2,000 users who compete against each other to achieve the highest scores by playing the games every week. These games are designed to be completed in just 2 minutes each, a format chosen to remove the stigma associated with financial education. Emily serves as the chief games creator, developing the game concepts and bringing them to life with the help of AI.

2mins is currently being piloted in nine schools across the UK, aiming to make financial education more accessible for teachers and more engaging for students. While the government has taken steps to incorporate financial education into the curriculum, Emily and Chris believe there is still a significant gap in implementation. They believe their solution offers an easy and accessible way for schools to deliver financial education.

Although the app is primarily targeted at users aged 16 and over, it has also attracted a significant following of adults, including a group of women over 45 years old. The next version of the app will be tailored for teachers, focusing on engagement strategies for both students and educators.

In addition to the educational market, 2mins is also developing a corporate version for HR departments. This version will build on the same principles as the original app, with tailored content and branding that reflect each company's employee benefits, culture, and objectives. The goal is to create a product that is "fun and light-hearted" and encourages employees to engage with their financial benefits, such as pension entitlements, share schemes, and parental leave.

For Chris, this market was always a long-term goal, once the startup had proven itself with young people. Following the pilot phase in schools, Emily and Chris plan to release an enhanced version of 2mins in 2027, targeting independent schools through a paid subscription model and a dedicated teacher dashboard. They also plan to continue developing the corporate product to expand into this potentially lucrative market and seek sponsorship for nationwide rollout in state schools.