Traditional banks, the brick and mortar operations that pepper the landscape as they have for hundreds of years, have been slow to upgrade and migrate to a digital-first (or only) service. This has created an opportunity for agile Fintechs to move in and Hoover up customers and accounts. In fact, digital banks or neobanks remain a red hot sector of Fintech as younger consumers have no interest in trotting over to a local bank branch to queue for service when they can do it all on their iPhone.
Unbanked is a new entrant into the neobanking sector. A neobank is Fintech that provides banking services without having a bank charter. Typically, a neobank partners with an already chartered institution to offer some or all of its services. In this case, Unbanked is working Evolve Bank & Trust, member FDIC, to provide account services, etc. but Unbanked takes it a step further to roll in crypto offerings alongside traditional offerings.
Unbanked is currently raising growth capital on Republic. Unbanked’s offering page explains its mission:
“After 50 years using the same technology, consumers expect more than traditional banks can offer. People have become accustomed to the ease of use of modern tech-enabled service platforms; in comparison, banking tech is slow and expensive, and setting up an account is far from easy. Cryptocurrencies and DeFi are rapidly disrupting the legacy finance ecosystem. They are bringing about a paradigm shift in finance—just as the internet did with communication and commerce. It’s the fourth industrial revolution!”
Unbanked is building a neobank “built on blockchain.” The company seeks to provide digital banking that is better, faster and, of course, cheaper for consumers and businesses.
An added twist is that Unbanked is offering its tech stack as a white label service reporting that it is currently supporting 10 third parties with its platform including Paxful, Nexo, Litecoin Foundation.
Created in 2018, Unbanked was founded by Ian Kane and Daniel Gouldman with a mission to transform financial services. On the company’s roadmap is a bank charter, lending/borrowing, expansion into other markets like Latin America, and more. While still small, its revenue has been growing rapidly and Unbanked expects revenue to jump in 2022 to more than double versus the year prior.
If you are interested in the securities offering, Unbanked is raising up to $5 million in a “Crowd SAFE” with a valuation cap of $115 million and a 20% discount. In effect, at a later priced round, you can get in at a discount. As it stands today, 1292 investors have backed the company raising over $1.2 million with over a month left in the offering.
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