Daylight — Why We Invested
By Ryan Falvey
Today we’re thrilled to continue to support Daylight in their Series Seed fundraise alongside Kapor Capital, Precursor and Clocktower Ventures. We were proud to have been Daylight’s first U.S. investor back in December of 2020 and have been thrilled to support the team as they build the country’s first digital banking platform specifically designed for and by the LGBT+ community. Typical of most investments, we got excited about Daylight because of a rare combination of a market / product / team fit. We’ve continued to invest because each of those factors have only grown stronger over the last 8 months.
The LGBT+ market has become mainstream and is now a growing market. It’s a community of 30m Americans with over $1T in buying power. That’s larger than most national economies and is growing at a significant rate with over 30% of Gen Z identifying as LGBT+ compared to just 10% of millennials. More and more people feel comfortable asking to be identified as they see themselves, particularly younger consumers who may have a more accepting, flexible and dynamic view of sexuality and gender.
But traditional institutions are pushing these consumers away. LGBT+ consumers continue to face systemic discrimination in how they encounter their banks with lower loan approval rates, higher fees and impersonal or inflexible service. This dynamic — which we see too often in financial services — creates an opportunity for Daylight to bring unique product experiences to market: Daylight’s preferred name feature is helping the company lay the groundwork for a new kind of personalized banking experience. Targeted programming and features such as the company’s outreach and awareness raising campaigns during pride month are early examples of how the company can create compelling communities around their Daylight experience. Stay tuned for much more here.
Finally, the team at Daylight is exceptional. As a team of queer millennials, they take pride in solving their own problems, know from personal experience the pain-points their customers face, and see the opportunities within their community for a better banking experience. We’re proud to be supporters of this incredibly talented team and look forward to continuing to work with them to build the future of banking for tens of millions of American’s who expect more of their financial service providers.
