Comun raises $4.5m to promote financial inclusion for Latinos

By Leandra Monteiro

Comun, a Latino-founded neobank that provides modern banking solutions for Latino families, announced it has closed a $4.5 million seed round led by Costanoa Ventures with participation from South Park Commons and FJ Labs.

The company plans to use the funds to build a financial hub with expanded solutions and resources for Latino immigrants in the USA.

Despite 44 million Latinos with Spanish as a primary language in the USA, no incumbent bank offers a full Spanish language banking experience. Latinos are three times more likely to be unbanked and two times more likely to fall into predatory loans. Currently, 41% of Latinos have no credit score, limiting their financial growth and mobility. All this, despite Latinos in the USA having a GDP of $2.8 trillion, the economic equivalent to the fifth largest economy in the world (Center for Economic Research & Forecasting 2022 U.S. Report).

“We built Comun to make it easier to thrive as an immigrant family in the USA,” 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. Our goal is to empower families to be successful in both their finances and the U.S. with a financial partner that they can trust and understand.”

Unlike traditional banks, Comun offers every aspect of the banking experience available in a Spanish-first experience, removing one of the biggest hurdles for the Latino community in getting the financial services they need. Comun provides Latino immigrants access to traditional financial services, including a checking account connected to a physical and virtual Visa debit card, direct deposits for payroll, and free ATM withdrawals and deposits but without requiring a social security number or any additional or hidden fees. A checking account is a vital component of participating 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.”