Estimated read time: 5-6 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
LEHI — Lehi startup, Crew, is aiming to revolutionize the world of banking through a new app built around how families handle finances.
"We just think there is a huge opportunity for financial literacy for kids and helping parents stay on top of their finances for the whole family, as well," Crew co-founder Gentry Davies said. "We just want to be the place where families bank."
Crew is a mobile app that claims to simplify the banking process, allowing families to organize multiple bank accounts.
Davies started Crew at the end of 2022 and his co-founder Steve Domino joined a few months later. They both had worked at Divvy, which manages corporate finances and was acquired in 2021 by Bill.com.
While working at Divvy, Davies said clients would frequently mention they wanted a finance managing service like Divvy to use for their families. Davies said a lot of the available options for family banking felt "dated," unnecessarily complicated and not built for families.
So he decided to "level up the experience for families" and left to create Crew.
Another push for Crew came from Davies' 5-year-old daughter, who is "precocious" and already trying to figure out how the world works. With that, she has already shown an interest in how to save money for more expensive toys, Davies said.
"I thought, 'OK, I'm pretty close to where she is getting ready for this, we better get building so by the time she's really ready, we've got a good experience ready for her,'" he said.
Davies said Crew is simple to use and free to sign up the whole family for checking accounts with debit cards and savings accounts. Eventually, he hopes it helps people with all financial needs.
In the app, parents are responsible for children's accounts and safeguards are in place so kids can learn how to manage their finances with fewer safety risks. Parents will be able to set up allowances and send money to the children's accounts so they can learn how to save their own money, think about finances and learn the benefits of delayed gratification.
Once a child hits age 18, Crew has an easy process for them to take ownership of their account, while still being connected to their parents, if they wish.
"The goal is, we want to build the absolute best banking experience for families. We don't want this to be something the kids graduate out of," Davies said. "We want them to look at the experience their parents have and be excited to graduate into a full experience and then when they build their own family over time, we are with them for that whole journey."
Crew collected a $2.5-million investment in March 2023 during its pre-seed phase, where startups pitch ideas to investors before building the product. Davies said it feels like "kindred spirits" working with investor Kickstart Fund, which helped fund Crew through its early stages.
Crew has eight full-time employees who have been engineering and developing the app, but the company has several ideas of product experiences it wants to explore in the future, Davies said.
The company hopes to expand its product to the web, create a kids app for children to check their account balances, house education savings accounts where kids can contribute, create investment opportunities and add a "smart charge card" that gives users a "debit-style experience" to build credit safely.
"You can have the kids have the same experience where they are spending from their own account in a really safe way and they can't overspend," Davies said. "But now they can start building credit and that can be reported so when they turn 18 they have a running start into adulthood, with a good credit score and good money habits and money they've saved and you've given your kid everything they need to be ready to confidently start adulting."
Davies said not a lot of parents realize children can start establishing credit history as a teenager, and he wants to make it a more "mainstream thing" more kids can take advantage of.
He said this family-friendly state is the perfect place for his startup to grow and flourish.
"This is the best place to launch a family-focused tech company — there's no argument I think. Utah is a very family-focused place and then we have a really great tech scene," Davies said. Family-focused tech companies, such as Chatbooks or Gabb, have done a "phenomenal job" in Utah, which makes Crew "stoked to be building here," he added.
There is a waitlist to join the program in the U.S. Gradually, people on the waitlist will be invited to start their banking experience as the app gets up and running, Davies said, adding that Crew has already started inviting people off the waitlist this week.
Although the app was built with families in mind, Davies said anyone can use it no matter what their family situation looks like.
"The dream here is we become the best places for families to bank and as you go through different seasons of your life, whether you're a kid, or at school, single, newlywed or have kids down the road, we want to grow with people throughout the whole process," he said.
Correction: A previous version incorrectly stated co-founder Steve Domino joined the Crew team in 2022 instead of in 2023, and Divvy was renamed to Bill.com when it was only acquired by Bill.com.
