Solidarity in action

In Atlanta, Mastercard has made a capital investment in Greenwood, a new, minority-owned Fintech founded by Killer Mike, former Atlanta mayor Andrew Young, and Bounce TV founder Ryan Glover, launching a robust mobile-banking program targeting the mass-affluent African-American community. Greenwood’s core mission is to foster new wealth generation and financial education, inclusive of Black and Brown prosperity. Greenwood selected Mastercard as its network of choice in bringing its first financial offering to market. The Greenwood matte black debit Mastercard will provide cardholders a digital-centric user experience along with innovative giveback programs focused on supporting Black and Latino causes and businesses.

Tanya Van Court’s Goalsetter app, launched in 2019, combines a savings account, financial literacy lessons and a Mastercard-powered debit card to help teach children, particularly children of color, how to save and manage their money. Kids with savings accounts are six times more likely to go to college, she says, viewing Goalsetter as a starting point for closing the racial wealth gap in America.

Founded by former Wall Street banker Wole Coaxum, MoCaFi, short for Mobility Capital Finance, extends financial tools and access to credit to people of color who are vastly undeserved in banking. Mastercard has recently invested in the company to help address these inequities and provide alternate financial services to underserved communities with a specific focus on providing tailored digital tools, and new payment cards to low wealth minority and Black communities.

Women of color are an entrepreneurial force, statistics show, but they receive less than 1% of venture  capital. Arian Simone, a former PR powerhouse, closed her company in 2018 to bring more opportunities to fellow women of color by co-founding Fearless Fund, which invests in businesses seeking pre-seed, seed level or series A financing across industries. To help further access to funding for Black women, Mastercard made a capital investment in Fearless Fund. The investment will allow Fearless Fund to further expand their portfolio of women of color-founded and co-founded companies in the consumer packaged goods, food & beverage, beauty, fashion, and technology sectors. The social impact of the investment will also have a significant role in job creation and wealth distribution in underserved communities.