This Week in ESG and Impact Investing

According to a March 25, 2021 press release, "Greenwood, the digital banking platform for Black and Latino individuals and business owners..announced it has closed $40 million of Series A funding from six of the seven largest U.S. banks and the top two payment technology companies: Truist, Bank of America, PNC, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo (Its still time to Clean House at Wells), Mastercard, and Visa."  The Greenwood online fintech platform (not a bank) officially opened its virtual doors for business on April 26, 2022.  The website notes that "Greenwood is not a bank. Banking services provided by Coastal Community Bank , Member FDIC. The Greenwood Debit Card is issued by Coastal Community Bank pursuant to a license by Mastercard International." It is significant to note that Coastal is not Black-owned, but they do have a significant social impact portfolio. We have no doubt that Greenwood attempted to enlist the aid of a Black bank, but, in addition to being small...

According to a press release, "Greenwood, the digital banking platform for Black and Latino individuals and business owners, today announced it has closed $40 million of Series A funding from six of the seven largest U.S. banks and the top two payment technology companies: Truist, Bank of America, PNC, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo (Its still time to Clean House at Wells ) , Mastercard, and Visa." The investor group also includes the largest Hispanic bank in the US, Banco Popular. (Looks like the crisis has finally forced the realization that, as MLK noted , "we must 'live together as brothers or perish together as fools." ) FIS, TTV Capital, SoftBank Opportunity Fund, Lightspeed Venture Partners and All-Pro NFL running back Alvin Kamara were also listed as investors. For a startup to receive funding from six of the seven largest firms in its industry is significant. The key question is why and what will they do with this funding? Greenwood started out of the Bank...