Rapper Killer Mike and his business partners have raised $40 million to support their new Atlanta-based digital bank Greenwood.
The group said Truist Financial, Bank of America and Visa are investors in the venture.
Greenwood’s founders say banks have fallen short in serving Black and Latino consumers.
About 17% of Black households don’t have a bank account, compared to 3% of white households, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said in a 2020 report.
“The net worth of a typical white family is nearly ten times greater than that of a Black family and eight times greater than that of a Latino family,” Greenwood chairman Ryan Glover said in a news release.
“This wealth gap is a curable injustice that requires collaboration,” he said.
The bank plans to offer checking and savings accounts this summer and to start lending money next year.
Other financial companies investing in Greenwood include JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Mastercard. New Orleans Saints running back Alvin Kamara was also part of the investment group.
Greenwood is named for the prosperous Tulsa, Oklahoma, neighborhood once known as the Black Wall Street before it was burned to the ground by a white mob in 1921.