Singapore Life bought a mobile app that lets parents track and control the pocket money used by their children.

Singapore Life, an online distributor of insurance products, has snapped up the assets of payments services firm Yolopay for under S$2 million, according to a a report by «Business Times». It has set its eyes on Yolopay's mobile application – Canvas, which allows parents to control the pocket money used by their children, as well as track expenditures on a pre-paid card. 

Walter de Oude, Singapore Life's founder and CEO, said the acquisition is a tactical initiative. «Along with our increasing number of wealth-centric product verticals, Canvas is a great addition to the Singapore Life family and adds payment functionality to our core offerings,» said Oude, who was quoted in the Business Times. 

Challenges Of Cash Allowance 

Based on a comprehensive study of 790 respondents conducted by YoloPay and theAsianparent.com, they found that 96 percent of Singaporean parents rely on cash as a way to give allowance to their children and domestic helpers. In the study, parents believe that top 3 categories their kids are spending on are food (63 percent), stationery and school-related items (19 percent), and transport (9 percent).

However, this is not how kids actually spend their money. A previous study on teenage spending habits reveals clothing and apparel as the top categories kids spend most in. The third category is a more worrying for parents: kids are spending heavily on e-commerce and online gaming.

Future Plans

The app is due to be launched middle of this year on Android and iOS devices. By holding a pre-paid Visa card within the app, parents can load pocket money for their children's use. Hence, parents can turn off the spending option when the kids burst their curfew, or when they should be doing their homework.

«Singapore Life is exploring how to develop the app to be used for public transport, as some 70 per cent of teenagers' expenses are for travelling,» said Liam McCance, Yolopay's former partner turned Singapore Life's head of its new fintech division. It is also working to connect with existing mobile wallets such as Apple Pay.