Galileo Financial Technologies Powers Latino-Focused Fintech Fortú

SALT LAKE CITY, April 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Fortú, the Miami-based neobank that launched today to serve the needs of the Latino community, is built on the extensible payment processing platform provided by Galileo, the API standard for card issuing and digital banking. Fortú is focused on building culturally contextual financial services to meet the unique banking needs of Latinos and Hispanics in the U.S.

Fortú was founded by Charles Yim, a former Amazon Web Services and Google executive, and Apolo Doca, who previously helped build Lemon Bank, an early (pre-smartphone) Brazilian digital bank acquired by Banco do Brasil. Fortú has raised $5 million, spending the last year in stealth mode building its product. Fortú joins other industry-leading U.S. and LatAm fintech companies that use Galileo's API-based platform.

The Fortú team is a mix of first and second generation immigrants with personal ties across Latin America (Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, etc.) and understands firsthand the tremendous quality-of-life improvement of culturally contextual financial products. According to Yim, the U.S. banking system is not well suited to serve Latinos, presenting obstacles ranging from big issues, such as regulations restricting how and when banks provide non-English language services, to smaller, high-impact issues, including greater embossing flexibility to avoid randomly truncating Latino names that don't fit within the 24-character embossing standard.

"By creating products to answer the needs of Latinos, who are more likely than the general population to be under- and unbanked, Fortú has set itself apart from other neobanks, while transforming financial wellness for the Latino community," said Galileo CEO Clay Wilkes. "Building on the flexible Galileo payments processing infrastructure makes it all possible."

The Latino community is one of the fastest growing demographics in the U.S., yet college- educated Latinos are three times more likely to be underbanked than their Caucasian counterparts. According to the Federal Reserve, 10 percent of Hispanic adults are unbanked, and an additional 22 percent are underbanked.

"Compared to other demographics, Latinos in the U.S. are more likely to live in multigenerational and multilingual households, with a significant percentage needing to send regular cross-border remittances, leading to an over-reliance on non-bank financial services," explained Doca. "Latinos have unique challenges in managing finances, which is why we chose the flexibility of Galileo to build Fortú from the ground up. We have created a way to offer the best set of mobile banking solutions--with features and functionality sets that address the needs of Gen Z to Baby Boomers--with our commitment to help face financial hardships and opportunities together."  

About Galileo
Galileo, the API standard for card issuing, virtual card solutions and digital banking, is a global payments processing platform that powers world-leading fintechs, challenger banks, neobanks, financial services and investment firms by removing the complexity from payments. Galileo makes it fast and easy for many types and sizes of businesses to innovate and deliver amazing financial services user experiences to their customers. Headquartered in Salt Lake City, Galileo has offices in Mexico City, New York City, San Francisco and Seattle.

About Fortú
Fortú is a digital bank account built for the culturally contextual needs for the 60 million plus Latinos and Hispanics in the U.S. Based in Miami, Florida, Fortú is backed by Valar Ventures and other leading fintech investors. For more information, visit www.fortu.com. Banking services are provided by LendingClub Bank N.A., Member FDIC. The Mastercard debit cards are issued by LendingClub Bank pursuant to a license from Mastercard, Inc. and may be used everywhere Mastercard debit cards are accepted.

SOURCE Galileo