From pizza box beginnings to Exclusive Books: Award-winning South African board game FinMaster launches nationwide in April
Fintr, the South African financial education company behind the internationally recognised board game, FinMaster, today announced the game’s nationwide launch at Exclusive Books. The launch has been met with great excitement: the board game that began as a humble pizza-box-prototype has since won 2nd place at the International Educational Games Competition in Norway (2025).
FinMaster is a light strategy board game that teaches players about investing, saving, and building wealth without feeling like a classroom exercise. Designed for ages 13 and up, the game challenges players to build diversified portfolios, navigate market events, and grow their net worth. The game also contains some uniquely South African elements like Load Shedding and Cabinet Reshuffle cards. It is South Africa’s homegrown version of Monopoly, with a 4.4 out of 5 “fun score” from players.
From a Pizza Box to the Bookshelf
FinMaster was born out of necessity. Co-founders Elijah and Danei, both industrial engineers, met in their final year of university over a shared frustration: growing up in homes where financial literacy was never discussed. They had to teach themselves everything they knew about money. “At the age of 17, I realised that other people did not have the same experience with money my own family did. As a young girl, I promised myself that I will learn how to plan for my future and make sure I would never need to look to anyone for money,” says Danei Rall, co-founder, COO and designer of FinMaster.
When a campus competition challenged students to solve a problem that Covid made worse, they chose financial literacy. “We ran a financial wellness programme for blue-collar employees at an automotive manufacturer,” says Elijah, co-founder and CEO of Fintr. “We found that 60-year-olds were beginning to start budgeting for the very first time as a result of our programme. One man told me, ‘It’s too late for me, but I’m going to give this booklet to my kids.’ That’s when we realised the real opportunity, and necessity, was to deliver this knowledge to the next generation.”
“We started some serious brainstorming and wanted to build an app instead,” Elijah recalls. “But everywhere we went, people would point to an initial pizza box iteration we had created as a board game, and would ask, ‘Can I buy that?’. At the biggest financial education conference in the world in the Netherlands, a delegate was so desperate to buy a copy of our pizza box prototype, that she paid in crypto because neither of us had a card machine. That’s when we decided to take the game idea more seriously and build something uniquely South African, with the ability to challenge Monopoly.”
Eighteen months of testing and iteration followed. The team contacted every buyer of the original pizza box version to gather feedback, leading to a complete redesign that introduced deeper strategy and player engagement elements alongside the educational core. 27 iterations later, on 12 December 2024, they launched the Limited Edition version of FinMaster in a room full of family, friends, and mentors.
More than a game: Real financial behaviour change for SA youth & families
What sets FinMaster apart from other educational games is measurable impact beyond the table. Parents report that their children are asking more questions about money and staying up late researching financial terms after playing. Young adults have reported opening Tax-Free Savings Accounts and fixing up their Easy Equities investment portfolios as a direct result of encountering these concepts in the game. Parent Renier said, “These holidays, my kids kept reaching for FinMaster. And it’s not like they didn’t have a choice of other games to choose from.”
“FinMaster is a masterpiece of a board game. Its appeal to the 13-year-old and the 90-year-old is insane,” says Priscilla, a player and early supporter. Simone, who played at Comic Con with her 13-year-old nephew, adds: “This game isn’t just educational for all ages, it is damn fun.”
The game has also won fans among professional game designers and global board game enthusiasts. At Spiel Essen, one of the world’s largest board game conventions, attendee Albert described it as “one of the best shorter games I’ve played at Spiel.” Board game designer Rory noted the game’s potential to be “both enjoyable and informative.” At Spiel Essen, one attendee waited 40 minutes for a point-of-sale system to reboot rather than leave without a copy.
Availability
FinMaster is now available at all 45 Exclusive Books stores nationwide from 7 April, although numbers are limited. The game is also available online at fintr.io, on Takealot, and at select hobby board game and toy stores across South Africa.
