Louise Hill

Louise Hill built a business from scratch into a global fintech serving 2.3 million families — and along the way became one of the UK's most recognised female founders. In 2011, she founded GoHenry, the money app helping children learn to earn, save, spend and invest, creating an entirely new category in financial services.

Fourteen years, $123 million in funding, an international expansion and an acquisition later, GoHenry stands as proof that a mission-led business, built and led by a woman in a male-dominated tech and finance world, can scale to real commercial success without losing sight of why it exists.

Louise grew GoHenry from zero to £95m in revenue and over £90m ARR, leading it through record-breaking crowdfunding rounds, organic expansion into the US, the acquisition of French fintech Pixpay, and, in 2023, a successful sale to US fintech Acorns, followed by a sale of the UK business to Barclays in 2026.

She speaks candidly about what it actually takes to scale a business at speed while protecting culture, purpose and team — the trade-offs, the near-misses, and the discipline it takes to keep a founding mission intact through funding rounds, growth and eventually an exit. Before GoHenry, she spent over 20 years in senior operational roles across UK retail, giving her a grounded, credible perspective on leadership that goes well beyond the tech-founder narrative.

Beyond the business, Louise has spent more than five years campaigning to make financial education compulsory in UK primary schools — engaging directly with Downing Street, the Treasury and the House of Commons, and giving oral evidence to the Education Select Committee and the Women and Equalities Committee. That campaign contributed to a landmark policy win: financial education is being introduced into the English primary curriculum from September 2028. It's a case study in turning personal conviction into public impact, and in using a founder's voice for something bigger than the business.

Louise's achievements have been widely recognised: she was named City of London Entrepreneur of the Year (2024), Women in Tech - Woman of the Year (2023) and City AM Entrepreneur of the Year (2023), and GoHenry won the Better Society Tech for Good award (2021). In 2025, she served as an expert judge on BBC's The Apprentice (Series 19).

She now channels much of her energy into mentoring the next generation of female founders and sits on Innovate Finance's Unicorn Council and the advisory boards of The Payments Association and the JPMorganChase FinTech Forward programme. She speaks with warmth, candour and hard-won credibility on what it really takes for women to found, scale and lead in tech — and why purpose and profit don't have to be a trade-off.