From workshop idea to investment opportunity, student app set for great things

Date 23.10.2018

A team of third year University of Northampton students studying International Development, have launch their own cryptocurrency app, Student Coin, which they hope will take the digital spending world by storm.

Drew Naygs, Student Coin founder said: “Student Coin was created during a social enterprise workshop in our first year at university. We were challenged to develop a business concept. As students, we were constantly thinking about our own finances, and working on our budgeting skills. Ben, the co-founder of the app, and I decided to create a concept which would specifically look at student finances, using blockchain technology for security and cryptocurrency to enable students to make their spending work harder for them.”

Cryptocurrency is a decentralized digital currency, which means that it’s not based in anything physical and isn’t controlled by one entity, something the student founders felt was key to helping students ‘own’ their financial situation. The Student Coin app aims to harness student spending power, for the students themselves, offering discounts on brands students love, and investment in cryptocurrency ‘tokens’ to work towards paying off their student loans.

Speaking about future hopes for the Student Coin app, Drew continued: The Student Coin app offers students smart-contract control, access to discounts and loyalty schemes, micro-loans, and also cryptocurrency investment, the founders hope, will help students to pay off student fees and loans. Student Coin is not just about saving money but ensuring that students’ time at university is free to focus on the learning and not on worrying about finances and how they are going to pay that next bill.”

Commenting on the process of taking Student Coin from idea to app development, co-founder Ben Stone said: “Being full time students we have found the balance between the business and our university life challenging at times, however, our passion for creating change for students has allowed us to work on both commitments.

“We’ve been lucky enough to have amazing support from the University, through the workshops and development support we’ve been helped to develop the idea and hone our own entrepreneurial skills.

“It’s amazing to think that not even 18months ago this was an idea sketched out in a university workshop, since then it’s gone from a “group exercise” into an emerging business, with the company growing at a fast pace. Drew and I have already been lucky enough to visit China to pitch in front of Chinese investors.”

The Student Coin app is currently available as part of an Initial Coin Offering (ICO), which is an alternative fundraising mechanism in which blockchain start-ups, like Student Coin, issue their own crypto tokens and sell them to generate investment.

Read more about Student Coin’s aspirations for the future on their website.