Overland Park-based First Boulevard describes itself as "unapologetic banking built for Black America." It's armed with a mission of improving the financial livelihood of Black Americans, and on Juneteenth, the digitally native neobank will reach a notable milestone.
On Saturday, it's rolling out the beta launch of its mobile banking app, which includes financial education modules, spending recommendations and real-time insights based on a user's purchases, and the ability to passively save for personal goals. First Boulevard also has a "Cash Back for Buying Black" program and will be the first to pilot Visa's new suite of crypto APIs, which allows customers to buy and trade digital assets, such as cryptocurrency, to build wealth. First Boulevard members also can earn points for making positive financial decisions and redeem them for things such as cash back, covering transactions, or in the near future, for acquiring fractional investments or cryptocurrency.
First Boulevard, which built its app in less than a year, originally planned to launch the app in the third or fourth quarter but worked to move up the deadline to Juneteenth, an annual holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the U.S.
"When we started this, we knew that it was critically important that we move with pace because of all the negative aspects of the wealth gap spreading in America," First Boulevard co-founder and CEO Donald Hawkins told the Kansas City Business Journal. "(Sharing) an anniversary with such an important day as Juneteenth — the date where our community decided this was the day we will recognize our liberation, our freedom — it makes us extremely happy and proud. It's also a consistent reminder for our team of why we're building what we're building."
Eventually, First Boulevard wants to build out a full suite of services that includes credit cards, business banking, personal loans, auto loans and mortgages. The neobank's banking services are provided by Central Bank of Kansas City.
Although Black Americans have a collective spending power of $1.4 trillion annually, they are underserved consumers of financial products and services, First Boulevard co-founder and COO Asya Bradley said during a previous interview.
"We're creating a team that is reflective of the community that we're serving, so that we can truly understand what everybody needs … and build and design financial products that bring us all to some sort of level of financial empowerment and generational wealth building," she said.
To date, more than 200,000 people have signed up to participate in the beta launch. Consumers can still sign up for early access on First Boulevard's website.
The beta period will allow First Boulevard to glean feedback from users on existing offerings, what they're interested in and features they'd like to see in the future.
"This period is meaningful to us," he said. "It's doing what we hope banks will learn to do, which is truly listen to the customer and build to fit the customer's direct needs."
The neobank has grown to 24 employees. According to a March post from one of its investors, "First Boulevard's team reflects the company's mission of elevating Black consumers and other underrepresented groups. Seventy-five percent of the company's employees are Black, 56% are female, 18% are LGBTQ and 81% are minorities."
The company has garnered support from athletes and celebrities who have signed up as ambassadors. More details will be announced in the future.
First Boulevard hopes its app launch on Juneteenth sends a powerful message: "We hope that we just become one of many solutions that people can look at as examples of what happens when people within the community decide to create their own solutions and decide to act," he said. "To launch on Juneteenth is something we feel will definitely be recognized in deeper ways further down the line."
