Step, a San Francisco, CA-based financial services company built for families and teens, closed a $22.5M Series A funding.
The round was led by Stripe, with participation from Will Smith’s Dreamers fund, Nas, Wndrco, Ronnie Lott, Matt Rutler, Kevin Gould, Noah and Jonah Goodhart as well as existing investors Crosslink Capital, Collaborative Fund and Sesame Ventures.
Founded by CJ MacDonald and Alexey Kalinichenko, Step provides an all-in-one banking solution that integrates certain key features and benefits of checking, savings, credit and debit cards into one account.
The Step card is linked to the Step mobile app which enables users to send and receive money instantly, shop online or in-store as well as leverage digital wallet platforms such as Apple Pay and Google Pay. The Step card is integrated with a fee-free, interest-bearing deposit account. Customers are not required to have a minimum balance and are not charged any hidden or overdraft fees. The Step offering also allows parents oversight into their teen’s spending, set limits and guidelines as well as have a view into card use.
The company has partnered with Mastercard, Stripe and Evolve to launch the solution in the following ways:
1) The card is co-branded with Mastercard while
2) the bank accounts are held and FDIC insured through their sponsor bank, Evolve Bank and Trust. Evolve Bank and Trust also enables ATM access for Step card holders at thousands of locations with no fees.
3) Stripe provides issuing and processing technology that will help the company empower users to participate in the economy while teaching financial literacy firsthand.
Step’s waitlist demand exceeds 500,000 people since its offering was announced just a few months ago.
FinSMEs
06/06/2019