KAYA was created and founded by Geetha Nithi, a 23-year-old double major in Financial Risk Management and Banking & Finance at Victoria University, Sunway, Malaysia.

While pursuing her studies, Geetha worked part-time as a babysitter to support her university life, spending time with children across more than 40 families. Through these experiences, she began to notice a recurring gap, many children lacked basic financial awareness, from understanding the value of money to recognising simple concepts such as saving, spending, and needs versus wants.

Being closely involved in children’s everyday routines gave her first-hand insight into how early financial habits and mindsets begin to form, and how little structured guidance most children receive around money. This reinforced her belief that financial education should start young and be introduced in a way that feels natural, engaging, and free from judgment.

This combination of academic training and real-world exposure became the foundation of KAYA, a financial literacy card game designed to help children and families build financial confidence through play, conversation, and shared experiences.