First Boulevard is a digitally native banking platform focused on empowering Black Americans to take control of their finances and build wealth. Its product roadmap includes fee-free debit cards, targeted financial education, early access to wages, round-up savings, budgeting tools and automated saving and wealth-building features. The company plans a Black business marketplace offering Cash Back for Buying Black™ with up to 15% cash back at Black-owned businesses, and intends to connect members to micro investments such as money market accounts, high-yield savings and cryptocurrency. First Boulevard reports roughly 100,000 people on its waitlist and currently has about 20 employees, with plans to grow headcount to 50 by year’s end; its staff is 60% Black and 85% BIPOC, two-thirds of leadership are women and leadership is 100% BIPOC. Co-founders Donald Hawkins and Asya Bradley drew on prior fintech experience to form the company last August. The company has a partnership with Visa to pilot a new suite of crypto APIs and plans to launch a First Boulevard Visa debit card.

Total raised

$5M

Funding rounds

1

Latest round

Seed

Latest activity

Feb 2021