Latina-Owned Fintech Raises $1.6M for Newly Launched Mobile App

Published by Kunbi Tinuoye at October 18, 2022

Tags

Tanya Menendez and Pamela Martinez, co-founders of Snowball Wealth

Fintech startup Snowball Wealth has announced the launch of a brand-new mobile app that offers an online community, social challenges, and AI-driven planning to help users get out of debt and build generational wealth.

The Latina-founded startup is focused on financial education and planning for individuals with a net worth of under $250K. The fintech app aims to relieve debt and simplify financial planning for first-time wealth builders. The founders pivoted from a student debt app to a community of wealth builders this year.

Because 90% of financial decisions are driven by emotion, the mobile app focuses on community and financial wellness to help users stick to their goals and build sustainable habits. The vision is to create the most affordable financial advisor platform to accelerate the debt-to-wealth process.

The co-founders of the company have over 10 years of experience in technology and finance. Tanya Menendez is a Goldman Sachs and Google alum who previously grew a tech company from an idea to 7 figure revenue and 200K business users. Pamela Martinez is a Stanford CS alum who previously led engineering teams at high-growth startups, Seesaw, and Clever.

“If you don’t have control over your finances, it’s hard to think about anything else,” said Menendez. “This is especially burdensome for Latinas, whose financial stability often has huge ripple effects for their entire family. In the US, Latinas hold $0.05 in net worth compared to the $1 held by their majority white male counterparts.”

“Snowball Wealth is creating a new class of investors like Bianca Gras, who has saved over $20,000 after joining and is now actively investing, or Rosi Baez, who used Snowball to pay off $15,000 in credit card debt in under a year and is now investing as well.”

In a pre-seed round, the company has raised $1.6M from multiple prominent Silicon Valley investors including Ulu Ventures, The Community Fund, Bumble Fund, Goodwater Capital, and Google for Startups, as well as angel investors like Rafael Garcia, Co-founder of Clever, Eliana Murillo, Co-founder of Tequila Alquimia, Shivani Siroya, Founder of Tala.

“It’s not enough to make money, it’s about how much we save and invest in ourselves and future generations,” said Eliana Murillo, an angel investor and Co-founder of Tequila Alquimia. “My community at Latinas Who Brunch has wanted a solution like this for years, and I’m thrilled to see Snowball already helping Latinas and all of their users to get out of debt and onto a path to build generational wealth. I invested in Snowball Wealth because there are millions of people who are becoming financially secure but are struggling with debt or getting started investing – making this a billion-dollar opportunity. Snowball will transform our communities for generations to come.”

Snowball Wealth, which is currently in beta, is a mobile app that moves people from debt to wealth via an online community, social challenges, and AI-driven planning. Snowball’s community-driven approach removes the taboo around talking about debt, income, and investing. The AI-driven planning provides a personalized roadmap to guide members on how to tackle debt and begin investing.

Main image: Snowball co-founders Tanya Menendez and Pamela Martinez (l-r)

COMMENTS.

comments

Kunbi Tinuoye

Kunbi Tinuoye is the founder and CEO of UrbanGeekz. Previously, she worked as a News Correspondent for NBC’s theGrio. Prior, she was a senior broadcast journalist for the BBC in London. Tinuoye currently sits on the SXSW Pitch Advisory Board and CES Conference Advisory Board. She is a key player in the Atlanta tech startup ecosystem and serves as a mentor for Comcast NBCUniversal’s The Farm Accelerator. Tinuoye has received several awards and accolades, including being honored with a Resolution from the Georgia Legislative.