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Good Money, a digital banking startup, has announced it’s raised $30 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Galaxy Digital with investments from Breyer Capital, Blocktower Capital, Boost VC, Ken Howery, Blockchange Ventures, Cross Culture Ventures, Troy Carter, Mitch Kapor, Peter Diamandis, Blake Mycoskie, Justin Rosenstein and others.
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Banking With a Social Focus
Besides peer-to-peer banking services, Good Money will offer FDIC-insured savings accounts bearing a 2 percent yield, free usage of fiat ATMs across the U.S., no-overdraft fees and low consumer loan rates. However, it seems that the people behind the venture believe a strong social focus is what will attract the most interest in the app. They promise that Good Money users will be able to direct 50 percent of the platform’s profits to projects focused on fixing environmental, social and economic inequality issues. The company’s founding team has also pledged half of their own equity to philanthropy.
“The combination of an activist brand with deep direct-to-consumer experience at scale, positions Good Money to be a leader in the historic disruption of the banking industry … Good Money is led by world-class founders who have built billion dollar companies, with marketing experience and relationships that can bring tens-of-millions of users into the ecosystem quickly,” said Sam Englebardt of Galaxy Digital.
Putting Equity in Clients’ hands
Good Money plans to launch a waiting list in January 2019 and reward users with equity for securing their place in line for the full platform which will be released later in the year. Every customer will receive equity when they open an account and thus become an owner of the banking platform and users may earn additional equity by installing the app, setting up a direct deposit or referring friends.
The startup is headed by Gunnar Lovelace, the founder of Thrive Market, an online grocery that previously raised $180 million in funding.
“Modern banking is a primary driver of so many issues we face as a society — from economic inequality, institutional racism, environmental destruction to political corruption,” said Lovelace. “We founded Good Money to help consumers take their money out of a system that’s both destroying the planet and extracting wealth from the most vulnerable and put it into a new system focused solely on benefiting people and planet. As we scale Good Money over the next 10 years, we will empower consumers to realize they should own the businesses they buy from as an evolutionary step in improving capitalism by leveling the economic playing field.”
Is a strong social focus the right approach to attract young people to the digital ecosystem? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Good Money.
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