LGBT+ Digital Bank Daylight Launches With Visa Fast Track Boost

Daylight, the first digital bank for the LGBT+ community, just went live in a Nov. 18 launch made possible by a big assist from Visa’s Fast Track program.

Daylight is just the latest member of Visa’s Fast Track program, an initiative that provides FinTechs looking to get off the ground with a bank sponsor and external payments processor.

Led by LGBT+ entrepreneurs and co-founders Rob Curtis, Daylight CEO, and Billie Simmons, Daylight chief of staff, the new digital bank plans to offer a range of products.

The new digital bank’s offerings include: Daylight Visa Prepaid Cards in the individual’s preferred name, even if it doesn’t match the legal spelling; access to financial coaches and a personalized stream of financial advice and resources tailored to the LGBT+ community; and the ability to donate to LGBT+ charities through Daylight’s platform, among other services.

Karen Webster recently discussed Daylight — and the 140 other FinTechs Visa has helped launched since the start of Fast Track two years ago — with Terry Angelos, Visa’s senior vice president and global head of FinTech.

“These firms need to find a bank sponsor,” Angelos said of the FinTechs in Visa’s Fast Track program. “They need to get an external processor. Our Fast Track program allows them to engage through us. And every time we knock off a couple of weeks or a month on that cycle, we’re encouraging more of these FinTechs by making it easier to onboard and compete vigorously built on our ability to help those companies to easily engage with us.”

Daylight is designed to be the digital version of the old small-town bank designed to serve the needs of a particular community, in this case the 30 million people in the LGBT community in the United States.

Currently, 20 percent of the LGBT community is “unbanked or underbanked,” Angelos told Webster.

“Daylight has owners who understand the LBGTQ community very well and sees a need for servicing that community in a better way,” Angelos said. “Collectively, this community represents a trillion dollars in U.S. spending. That’s a pretty large, healthy community if you want to build a successful bank.”