Diana Brondel, the Senegalese who teaches finances to teenagers

Diana Brondel is a Senegalese entrepreneur. She is the founder of Xaalys, a financial education platform for teenagers. 

Diana Brondel graduated from a business school in 2006 and led her career in the banking sector. For 10 years, she carried out numerous missions and held various positions within Société Générale in France. Initially a General Inspector, she later became Chief of Staff of the bank’s International Banking and Financial services division. 

While she was in this position, the bank carried out a study on neobanks. She took a particular interest in them and found that there were no banking solutions for young people in Europe. Moreover, as the mother of two boys, she discovered that young people in particular have no idea of the value of money. 

In 2016, she decided to leave her job and in 2017 created the start-up Xaalys, which means “money” in Wolof. The aim of the platform is to instil financial education in young people, preparing and supporting them towards financial independence.

Ensuring financial education for young people

Xaalys is an application with two interfaces for parents and children respectively. It provides young people with an account in their own name and a payment and withdrawal card over which parents have control, as well as several functionalities, such as a kitty to be filled with pocket money, access to fun financial education content, etc.

The parents’ interface allows parents to track their child, top up their account, monitor their spending, determine the budget they allocate to their child, block or unblock their card, authorise or not authorise online purchases, exclude certain types of expenditure, etc. The platform is both paying and free of charge. The financial education modules are accessible to all young people free of charge, while financial transactions are subject to a fee of €10.

Today, the start-up operates between France and Senegal. A team based in Dakar is in charge of technical development, while another one based in Paris takes care of the operational part and customer support. Available only in Europe, the platform should be deployed internationally in the long term, according to its founder, to raise awareness of financial education among young people around the world. 

Thanks to her project, Diana Brondel has been ranked by Forbes magazine as one of the 92 women who revolutionise technology in France in 2018. In the same year, her platform was included in the ranking of the 100 best start-ups to invest in by the French magazine Challenges.  It has also been a finalist in numerous competitions, including the BFM radio’s Business Creators Competition.