Comun, a Latino-founded neobank that provides modern banking solutions for Latino families, announced it closed a $4.5M seed round led by Costanoa Ventures with participation from South Park Commons and FJ Labs.
The company plans “to use the funds to build a financial hub with expanded solutions and resources for Latino immigrants in the U.S.”
Despite 44 million Latinos with Spanish as a primary language in the U.S., no incumbent bank offers “a full Spanish language banking experience.”
Latinos are three times “more likely to be unbanked and two times more likely to fall into predatory loans.” Currently, 41% of Latinos “have no credit score, limiting their financial growth and mobility.” All this, despite Latinos in the U.S. “having a GDP of $2.8 trillion, the economic equivalent to the fifth largest economy in the world (Center for Economic Research & Forecasting 2022 U.S. Report).”
Andres Santos, Co-Founder & CEO of Comun, said:
“We built Comun to make it easier to thrive as an immigrant family in the U.S. Banking is a gateway to accessing many services that are vital to a person’s livelihood. My co-founder and I both experienced how challenging it can be to navigate the banking system as immigrants. Our goal is to empower families to be successful in both their finances and the U.S. with a financial partner that they can trust and understand.”
Unlike traditional banks, Comun offers every aspect of “the banking experience available in a Spanish-first experience, removing one of the biggest hurdles for the Latino community in getting the financial services they need.”
Comun provides Latino immigrants “access to traditional financial services, including a checking account connected to a physical and virtual Visa debit card, direct deposits for payroll, and free ATM withdrawals and deposits but without requiring a social security number or any additional or hidden fees.”
A checking account is “a vital component of participating in the financial system and building financial stability.”
Mark Selcow, Partner at Costanoa Ventures, said:
“There is a huge opportunity for financial products that better fit the needs of multi-generational, Latino families in the U.S. People want their bank to understand them, and Comun is building the best, most customer-oriented digital bank for a large and growing first and second generation Latinos.”
Founded in 2021 by Abiel Gutierrez and Andres Santos who both faced financial exclusion when they migrated to the U.S., Comun customers already “move over $100,000 a week on average, with 20% week-over-week growth since debuting in September 2022.”
It offers customers “a Spanish-first user experience, 24/7 customer support and the ability to sign up with a foreign passport.”
In addition to user-friendly tools and resources “available through the Comun mobile app, customers also have access to educational content to help better manage their finances for long-term financial growth.”