Costanoa Ventures led Seed Round with participation from South Park Commons and FJ Labs
Innovation and entrepreneurship is about filling a gap or solving a pain point. Comun, a Latino-founded neobank offering banking solutions for Latino families, found a gap to fill and a pain point to solve. Comun observed that no incumbent bank offers a full Spanish language banking experience.
Comun gained investor support of $4.5M Seed capital to serve the 44 million Latinos with Spanish as a primary language in the U.S. Their new banking model will address the pain of Latinos being three times more likely to be unbanked and two times more likely to fall into predatory loans. That circumstance combined with 41% of Latinos not having a credit score, identifies a sizeable segment of the U.S. economy that is excluded from services and support that could help their financial growth and mobility.
The bank was founded in 2021 by Abiel Gutierrez and Andres Santos who both faced financial exclusion when they migrated to the U.S. Since its debut in 2022 Comun customers have moved over $100,000 a week on average that resulting in a 20% week-over-week growth—a great start for the financial inclusion of Latinos.
“We built Comun to make it easier to thrive as an immigrant family in the U.S.,” said Andres Santos, Co-Founder & CEO of Comun. “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.
Comun offers a full banking experience available first in Spanish, bringing the Latino community together around the financial services they need. Traditional services are provided but without requiring a social security number or any additional or hidden fees. The bank sees a checking account as a vital component for immigrants to participate in the financial system and building financial stability.
“There is a huge opportunity for financial products that better fit the needs of multi-generational, Latino families in the U.S.,” said Mark Selcow, Partner at Costanoa Ventures. “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.”
The launching of Comun is another big step for Latino financial inclusion.
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