FinTech Founder Raises $4.4M in Seed Funding

Businesses are creating new avenues in pop culture that will provide future generations with creative opportunities to achieve financial stability.

Luke Baileyfounder and CEO of Neon Money Club, launched a fintech company on the side Jackie Liao to present the digital generation with a new approach to investment and financial growth. The company promotes the philosophy that “ownership is the new drip” by teaching the modern generation the value of owning the things they love to buy.

“…We coined the phrase ‘ownership is the new drip’ because the whole thing is what if you could show off your financial health profile? What if you could show off your investments? What if you could show off your financial well-being the same way you would show off a pair of sneakers or show off a new piece of clothing,” Bailey said AfroTech in an exclusive interview.

According to the outlet, Bailey was exposed to banking in his late teens. After working in the industry for 18 years, he recognized the lack of representation in the community and decided to take a step back from work to pursue Neon Money Club.

The fintech company is an invite-only digital club that embraces familiar concepts where users can explore investment arenas such as streetwear, sneakers and more. The club invites users into a safe space that offers resources and guidance for investing. AfroTech reported that investors are given security for “an area that often has a scare factor in the community.”

“What if we could give our 20-year-olds a safe place to go and not only learn the keys to the game and invest, but to actually do it right and actually know the value of the things they already know the value of,” Bailey explained.

“You can look in my closet right now and you can check out all my sneakers. You can check out all my drips. I have electronics here. I’m sitting here looking at an iPhone, I’m talking to you on an Apple computer. I own these things, but I don’t own the company. So how can I own a piece of that company that I already know is valuable and is already a part of my everyday life.”

Bailey and Liao are both sneakerheads and streetwear enthusiasts. Their bond over their shared passions was a major factor in creating the Neon Money Club.

The platform emphasizes that users have the authority to safely invest their money without any problems. Information is curated in the form of investment playlists, and each playlist has several stocks based on a specific theme. Bailey and Liao spoke to over 100 venture capitalists, and after being recognized by investors, the company raised $4 million in funding.

Bailey believes he is “the only Black tech founder in NYC to have raised this much in a pre-product and pre-launch seed round.”