From app idea to board game hit

A Pretoria-founded financial education start-up, Fintr, has found that its tabletop game is drawing more customer attention than its digital learning platform – and the game is now stocked nationwide at Exclusive Books, with a US retailer also carrying the title.

FinMaster’s trajectory has surprised even Fintr’s founders.

“We started our business with a passion for financial education, so we made sure to be clear on the problem we are addressing, knowing that the solution might look different depending on the people it’s for and the timing,” Fintr co-founder Danei Rall said in an interview with TechCentral.

“We also have a digital learning platform for schools, but the physical game is getting more attention than that.”

Fintr was started by Rall and her business partner Elijah Djan after the pair met at the University of Pretoria. After two years running personal finance workshops with adult learners, and hearing the same refrain — that “I wish I’d learnt this stuff as a kid” — the company pivoted in 2023 to put children at the centre of its work.

Initial customer research with 60 parents was supposed to lead to an app for managing pocket money and household savings goals. But influenced by the Paul Graham essay, Do Things that Don’t Scale, the founders decided to deliver lessons in person before writing any code. It was during those sessions that the idea of a physical game instead of an app emerged.

Finters

Building a physical product comes with challenges that differ from those of building software. Rall said she and the team applied a software development methodology to the design, going out to test new iterations with community members each Friday, gathering feedback, and using the next week’s sprint to make changes. All the development iterations were made by hand.

The game is built around a fictional currency called Finters and exposes players to savings, retirement assets, property, stocks, businesses and alternative investments. Event cards model real-world shocks – Covid-19, natural disasters, election outcomes – and a set of distinctly South African “power cards” includes a load-shedding card that skips an opponent’s turn and a government tender card that triggers a dice roll for a payout.

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The mechanic was added after local play-testers complained that an earlier, gentler version lacked teeth. “When we started improving the game, we made it this cosy game where you are building up your own assets to grow your net worth. There were a few things you could do but you were kind of in isolation. When we tested it with South African audiences they said, ‘We want ‘vayolance’ in this game!’” Rall said.

The team cycled through 27 iterations before settling on a final design. The first commercial run – 150 hand-built copies, signed and sold in pizza boxes – sold out on the first day. A single limited-edition copy, the last of those that were handmade, later went for R7 000.

Manufacturing has since moved through three phases: hand assembly, a local printer for the second run, and an international supplier for the volumes in the thousands the company now ships. None of the local quotes Fintr received made the unit economics work at retail price points, Rall said.

Distribution has scaled in step. FinMaster, which is R800 to purchase online, started life in a handful of independent board game stores before securing a nationwide listing with Exclusive Books, which the founders describe as the channel that has given them access “to the rest of the country”. A US retailer is also stocking the game. Fintr is now in talks with financial institutions and schools – not as resellers, Rall stresses, but as on-ramps to expose more children to the game’s lessons.

Digital is creeping back into the product. An AI-powered rules assistant is already live for players who want clarification on game mechanics, and an AI scoring calculator – which would tally a player’s net worth from a photograph of their assets – is in development. A digital edition of the game has been requested but remains unbuilt.

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“People are really fatigued by screens and digital engagement. When they leave work they don’t want to stare at another screen. Then there is the talk of how dangerous devices are for kids,” Rall said. “AI is going to replace the boring stuff, but people are going to be hungry for authentic experiences and quality time.”  — © 2026 NewsCentral Media