Today, we’re proud to announce our Founder & CEO, Wole Coaxum, will join the Board of Tech:NYC, the city’s preeminent organization representing more than 800 tech companies and startups in New York. We’re committed to our team in NYC and the city more broadly, and we’re excited to continue advocating for the ongoing growth of the ecosystem here. bit.ly/3RlFKKu
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: Wednesday, May 31
MOCAFI, FINTECH PLATFORM TO CLOSE THE RACIAL WEALTH GAP, RAISES $23.5 MILLION IN SERIES B FINANCING
Commerce Ventures led Series-B round, with participation from new strategic investors including BNY Mellon, Wells Fargo and Truist Ventures, as well as existing investors
MoCaFi was founded and is led by Black entrepreneur Wole Coaxum to end racial wealth inequality.
NEW YORK, NY– Mobility Capital Finance, Inc. (“MoCaFi”), a turnkey fintech platform leading financial empowerment for traditionally underserved communities, announces $23.5M in Series-B financing, led by Commerce Ventures. MoCaFi provides Financial Services as Infrastructure™ to various levels of government to improve the efficiency of providing financial and other resources to underserved communities across the country. MoCaFi’s mission is to help excluded communities create wealth through better access to public, private, and social capital.
MoCaFi was founded in 2016 by Wole Coaxum, a Black former Wall Street Executive who was inspired by the 2014 murder of teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO, to address stark social inequities by closing the racial wealth gap. MoCaFi advances a vision of socioeconomic justice by creating pathways to financial empowerment for millions of unbanked or underbanked Americans. With over $100 million of financial resources disbursed to underserved communities across 15 cities and counties across the country, MoCaFi is utilizing its capital to fulfill that vision and scale.
“Commerce Ventures has been unbelievably impressed by MoCaFi’s passion for helping underserved communities access high-quality, affordable financial services,” said Dan Rosen, Founding Partner and Head of Fintech Investments at Commerce Ventures. “MoCaFi’s scalable payments platform enables government agencies (Federal, State and Local) to disburse benefits directly to vulnerable populations in some of the country’s largest municipalities, including Los Angeles, CA, St. Louis, MO and Birmingham, AL. We’re excited to see the company deliver similar value to the next dozen municipality clients while also enabling the under-banked to get access to digital banking services and pathways to accessing credit and building wealth.”
“We are pleased to be joined by new investment partners with such valuable expertise. MoCaFi has established unique government partnerships that are capable of creating dramatic impact at scale, for millions of Americans currently unable to access quality financial services and benefits.”, said Tom Hutton, lead Series A Investor and investor in the Series B round, MoCaFi Board Member and accomplished Fintech venture capitalist.
Billions of dollars in public benefits are left unspent due to various complexities and inefficiencies in disbursement methods. MoCaFi’s platform provides governments with a solution that increases adoption and delivers benefits efficiently while reducing fraud.
“MoCaFi has been the perfect partner for the City of Birmingham. Over the last three years, we have delivered almost $20 million in emergency assistance to thousands of families – keeping them in their homes and keeping the lights on, and we couldn’t have done it without MoCaFi. More than just a payment processor- the MoCaFi team has been a fully engaged thought partner from conception through execution. We are incredibly appreciative of their support and hope to work with them again soon!” said Kelvin Datcher, Senior Advisor to the Mayor of Birmingham.
“We are excited to welcome the new investors to the MoCaFi mission, and appreciate the support of our existing investors, many of whom continue to show their trust by participating in the latest round . This Series B round allows MoCaFi to scale quickly and validates our unique business proposition. With this capital and more importantly, support from these terrific strategic investors, we can continue to innovate and bring our products and services to more municipalities, government entities and community partners – ultimately helping more people.” said Wole Coaxum, MoCaFi CEO & Founder.
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About MoCaFI:
MoCaFi’s mission is to help excluded communities create wealth through better access to public, private, and social capital. MoCaFi’s Financial Services as Infrastructure™ platform works with government and philanthropic organizations to provide cash assistance, mobile banking, and financial programming to individuals and families. MoCaFi’s products include a Mastercard branded Immediate Response Card and Demand Deposit Account providing no-fee cash withdrawals, no-fee deposit options, online banking services and access to credit-building tools and financial literacy programs. Blueprint by MoCaFi empowers users to manage their finances, track credit scores, reduce debt, and work towards mortgage readiness. On Our Block by MoCaFi™ community-banking pop-ups bring its banking products, financial programming and resources to support Black and brown communities in building personalized pathways to wealth.
MoCaFi has been named to FORBES Fintech 50: Most Innovative Fintechs of 2021, FORTUNE’s Impact 20 (2021) and The Plug’s 100 Promising Black-led, High-Growth Tech Companies focusing on Social Impact ( 2023). For more information, visit www.mocafi.com
The MoCaFi Bank Account and the MoCaFi Debit Mastercard are issued by Sunrise Banks N.A., Member FDIC, pursuant to a license from Mastercard International Incorporated. Mastercard is a registered trademark, and the circles design is a trademark of Mastercard International Incorporated. The card may be used everywhere Debit Mastercard is accepted. Use of this card constitutes acceptance of the terms and conditions stated in the Account Agreement. The MoCaFi Bank Account is marketed and administered by MoCaFi. MoCaFi is a financial technology company and not a bank. Banking services are provided by Sunrise Banks N.A. Your funds are FDIC insured up to $250,000 through Sunrise Banks, N.A., Members FDIC.
MoCaFi and the City of Detroit Mutually Agree To Terminate Detroit-ID Relationship
July 22, 2022 — The City of Detroit purchased municipal identification services from Mobility Capital
Finance, Inc. (MoCaFi). In light of concerns from local interest groups regarding using data to create the
identification cards and with less than 1,000 cards produced, we agreed with the City of Detroit to stop
providing this service.
The City asserted in a statement that it had received no complaints or indication of any misuse of the
collected data. The statement reads, “the concerns raised by some are false and have no legitimate relation
to the Detroit ID program. Because this false information was being spread throughout the immigrant
community, we agreed with MoCaFi on Friday to shut down the Detroit ID program to stop the spread of
misinformation.”
MoCaFi has not sold and does not sell personal information to third parties, including Immigration and
Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other government agencies. MoCaFi does not share personal
information with law enforcement agencies unless required to do so by law.
MoCaFi was founded on creating equitable and inclusive communities for everyone and recognizes and
celebrates the dignity and humanity of all people. This company was born out of a commitment to address
the needs of people of color whom traditional banking institutions have systematically disenfranchised.
As we continue to reimagine financial products and services to empower and elevate communities, we
will remain vigilant to continue serving individuals ethically, transparently, and respectfully.
The rise of the gig and independent economy has led to a need for accessible benefits options, as well as the flexibility to move benefits across jobs. Addressing this demand, Mastercard today announced a new strategic partnership with Stride, the leading portable benefits platform for independent workers, to provide customers with the ability to offer cardholders in the United States access to simple, affordable coverage plans. This marks the first time that differentiated health, dental, and vision benefits will be made available via a payments network.
Among the first of Mastercard’s customers to use Stride’s Portable Benefits Platform are African American-owned fintech Mobility Capital Finance (MoCaFi) and Jobble, a community of over 2 million on-demand workers spanning the delivery, warehouse, grocery and restaurant fields, among others. MoCaFi and Jobble cardholders, as well as other Mastercard participating partners, will have access to Stride’s Portable Benefits Platform, which provides:
Additionally, beginning in 2021, enabled Mastercard cardholders will be able to use their cards on Stride’s Portable Benefits Platform, making it easier and more rewarding for their users to pay for their benefits.
Radicle Impact Partners leads Series Seed round for the mobile banking platform which provides innovative financial tools that foster economic mobility in underbanked communities
NEWARK, NJ – February 5, 2020 – Mobility Capital Finance [“MoCaFi”], a financial technology, mobile-first banking platform that is committed to bringing financially underserved communities in the United States into the digital banking economy has closed $3.5 million in a Series Seed funding round.
The Series Seed round was led by Radicle Impact Partners with other institutional investors including Newark Venture Partners (NVP), Partnership Fund for New York City, Social Venture Circle of Philadelphia, SustainVC, WinWin, Portfolia, and Capital Access Holdings. Several family offices participated as well. Winston & Strawn served as Company counsel.
“MoCaFi delivers high quality, appropriately priced products and services to communities across the country,” said founder Wole Coaxum, an African American former Wall Street and insurance industry executive. “Financially vulnerable people, especially communities of color deserve the opportunity to bank smart and build their credit. The funding that we have received will be utilized to focus on expanding opportunities for traditionally underserved communities, bringing more people into the financial mainstream – lowering their cost to borrow, increasing their access to quality products and services, and providing a resource in the journey of creating wealth.”
MoCaFi — based in Harlem (NY) and Newark (NJ) — is addressing a market failure that exists in the United States where far too many people rely on expensive products to handle their banking needs. It seeks to disrupt the estimated $196 billion alternative financial services market, which includes payday lenders, car title lenders, and check cashing services by leveraging innovative mobile strategies, financial literacy, analytics tools, and digital user acquisition strategies.
MoCaFi’s mobile banking platform has partnered with St. Paul-based Sunrise Banks to offer its customers affordable FDIC-insured bank accounts, works with Mastercard to provide cards to the financially underserved and collaborates closely with Equifax to empower its customers to build their credit using their rent payments as a key component of their credit score. MoCaFi also has a marketing partnership with Facebook.
“We are honored to support MoCaFi’s mission of building a more economically just society where all people have access to safe and beneficial financial services,” said Kat Taylor, Co-Founder and General Partner of Radicle Impact. “MoCaFi is particularly focused on Black and Brown communities who have historically been excluded from wealth creation and who continue to experience harm from predatory financial practices. MoCaFi provides the first step to economic mobility and prosperity for its customers and will be a critical tool in addressing our nation’s severe racial wealth gap.”
A key part of MoCaFi’s business model is to create a framework that addresses limited economic mobility and lack of financial equity in Black and Hispanic communities across the United States. The FDIC estimates that over 50 percent of Black and Hispanic households are either unbanked or underbanked. According to a study by Prosperity Now and the Institute for Policy Studies, the median wealth for Black and Latino families in this country will be zero in the coming decades if present trends continue.
Dan Borok, Managing Partner of Newark Venture Partners, stated, “MoCaFi is bringing financial access and opportunity to underbanked communities by meeting them exactly where they are. Wole and his team built this mobile platform with the belief that everyone should have the opportunity to earn, save and build wealth – and their innovative work reinventing the way credit scores are calculated in these communities show they are exactly the right team for the job. MoCaFi’s differentiated offering for the large and growing underbanked market represents a big opportunity and NVP and our community of corporate partners are excited to help them succeed.”
MoCaFi completed NVP Labs, Newark Venture Partners’ 12-week bridge-to-seed accelerator program that gets startup to scale. The program included capital investment, execution support on sales and marketing, and access to a fulltime growth team as well as mentors and corporate partners.
“MoCaFi is tackling key barriers to economic mobility and helping the unbanked and underbanked build a solid financial future. Building a robust fintech sector in New York City is one of our top priorities,” said Maria Gotsch, President and CEO of the Partnership Fund for New York City. “We are happy to support a company focused on giving all New Yorkers access to the digital economy.”
“MoCaFi’s focus on improving financial mobility and helping the underbanked across the United States build a more secure future aligns perfectly with the thesis of our Rising America Fund,” added Trish Costello, CEO of Portfolia. “Successfully addressing this huge unmet need holds the potential for significant venture level returns. Wole and his leadership team are truly driving change in Black and Latinx communities underserved by the current financial system, and we are proud to be an investor.”
1 2017 FDIC National Survey of Unbanked and Underbanked Households.
2 The Road to Zero Wealth: How the racial wealth divide is hollowing out America’s Middle Class, September 2017, Institute for Policy Studies & Prosperity Now.
