Growing up, Bunmi Onitiri’s Nigerian-American family instilled in her the importance of getting a good job and saving money—but investing her money was overlooked.
“It kind of focused mostly on making money and saving money and budgeting, not necessarily investing it,” Onitiri said.
Onitiri said she knew it was important to invest beyond her 401K. She tried workshops. She downloaded investing apps. But nothing stuck. Then, she heard about Stackwell Capital Inc. and its robo-investing app aimed at eliminating the racial wealth gap. Onitiri participated in a beta test of the app this summer and said she finally found an investing tool she plans to keep using.
Wednesday morning Stackwell announced the public release of the app and a series of multi-year partnerships with several NBA and WNBA teams to build investment education through community engagement.
Building generational wealth
The robo-investing app aims to make investing easy by recommending and managing a portfolio based on user preferences. Onitiri, a Brooklyn-based brand strategist, appreciated the simplicity, but even more than that, she loved the app’s commitment to uplifting the Black community.
“I think it’s helpful when the whole premise of it is to introduce a community, who hasn’t been served in this way, to investing. It doesn’t feel as daunting,” Onitiri said. She joined the beta after hearing about it from her former college roommate, Omosefe Aiyevbowman, who is now Stackwell’s vice president of product.
Only about 34% of Black households were investing in the stock market in 2019, according to a survey by the Federal Reserve Board, compared to 61% of white families. That's just one contributing factor to the racial wealth gap. Across the U.S., white households have about eight times more wealth than Black households.
Trevor Rozier-Byrd launched Stackwell in the fall of 2021 with the goal of building generational wealth in the Black community. Rozier-Byrd started his career at a New York law firm and was most recently a managing director at State Street.
“We are intentionally committed to this issue and to this community. And we’re really trying to provide an environment and a product that is welcoming of all people and really just about trying to go along this journey with individuals and help them realize better outcomes for themselves and for their families for generations to come,” Rozier-Byrd said.
Inside the app
Stackwell’s app starts by walking users through a questionnaire to learn more about their goals, income and net worth, values and investment time horizon. Based on this information it recommends one of three portfolios. Rozier-Byrd said over time that number will increase.
The app is meant to be accessible with a $1 monthly subscription fee and $10 investment minimum.
The app is also filled with educational content. Rozier-Byrd said this ranges from overviews of basic principles of investing, like the importance of a diverse portfolio, to content that speaks specifically to experiences shared by some in the Black community.
“We talk about the fact that there’s a strong sense of loss aversion or risk aversion within the Black community when it comes to investing,” Rozier-Byrd said. “There’s a specific piece of content in the app right now…that speaks specifically to help people understand volatility is not necessarily a bad thing.”
Onitiri said she found the app’s “vibe” to be inviting and didn’t make her feel like she should already be an investing expert.
Planning for growth
To build its community, Stackwell is partnering with several NBA teams, including the Detroit Pistons, the New Orleans Pelicans, the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Washington Wizards. The company is also partnering with the WNBA teams the Minnesota Lynx and the Washington Mystics.
Members of the NBA and WNBA have been leaders in the social justice movement, Rozier-Byrd said, and the leagues in general have cultural relevance within the Black community. The company chose teams representing cities with a large Black population and a wide wealth gap. Partnering with these teams will help Stackwell build trust in the Black community, according to Rozier-Byrd.
“These partnerships are not sports marketing deals where Stackwell is just trying to plaster its name and logo across arenas across the country,” Rozier-Byrd said.
In each city, Stackwell will partner with teams to do financial literacy trainings in the community, focused especially on students, entrepreneurs and small business owners. Rozier-Byrd said people who take part in these programs will get access to the app and seed funding to kickstart their investment journey.
As for the future of Stackwell, Onitiri said she hopes the startup expands into crypto and web3. She said this is an area where the Black community has the opportunity to get in close to the ground floor, so the inequities aren’t as wide.
Rozier-Byrd sees a broader vision for the company.
“We see an opportunity to build trust with this community and ultimately start to serve the end-to-end banking and financial services needs of people within this community,” Rozier-Byrd said.
