Digital banking platform aimed at Black and Latino communities, Greenwood raised $40m in a Series A funding round led by Truist Ventures.
Other investors included Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo & Co., PNC Financial Services Group Inc., Mastercard and Visa Inc alongside technology provider FIS, Hispanic-owned Banco Popular and venture capital firms SoftBank, TTV Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Quality Ventures who also took part.
Greenwood, which raised $3m in seed funding from private investors in October, aims to create nonpredatory lending products for recirculation of capital in Black and Latinx communities. The funds will be used to build its team and deliver community-focused financial services.
Co-founded by former ambassador Andrew Young, Ryan Glover and rapper Michael ‘Killer Mike’ Render, the firm plans to launch debit and savings accounts after amassing a waiting list of more than 500,000 potential users. It will unveil its investment product offerings sometime in 2022, it said.
Commenting on the importance of supporting the Black community, Glover said, “The net worth of a typical white family is nearly ten times greater than that of a Black family and eight times greater than that of a Latino family. This wealth gap is a curable injustice that requires collaboration.
“The backing of six of the top seven banks and the two largest payment technology companies is a testament to the contemporary influence of the Black and Latino community. We now are even better positioned to deliver the world-class services our customers deserve.”
According to Glover, the timing for Greenwood, which he’s been working on since 2018, couldn’t have been more perfect following the cultural movement to support Black-owned businesses that began in the wake of the George Floyd killing last year.
“We think it is critical that our actions live up to the promise of our name,” said Glover, referring to Tulsa, Oklahoma’s Greenwood District of the early 20th Century, which included the prosperous “Black Wall Street”.
Copyright © 2021 FinTech Global
