For the more than 600,000 people who are released every year from U.S. prisons, life on the outside can become exceedingly expensive and fraught with financial pitfalls.
A new startup based in Providence and New York called Solvent is hoping to help change that for those who've been incarcerated, and recently partnered with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to grow its business.
In April, AWS announced a three-year, $30 million commitment to the AWS Impact Accelerator, a series of programs designed to help high-potential, pre-seed startups led by underrepresented founders succeed. Solvent was chosen alongside several other startups for the first of these programs, the AWS Impact Accelerator for Black Founders.
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The company provides affordable tech-driven personal financial and banking tools, products and services for those who are financially excluded and disadvantaged, underserved and overlooked because of their past incarcerations, according to Solvent spokesperson Tim Heslin. Solvent's platform includes robust financial literacy and entrepreneurship education content that empowers the System Impacted to optimize their financial lives, in a space where they have traditionally been locked out.
Heslin said the company is still developing its platform and mobile app with plans to launch within the next 90 days. In the meantime, a waitlist where customers can sign-up to be notified when it launches has been created.
"After downloading the Solvent app on a smartphone it works by a user signing-up and becoming a member, thereby joining the Solvent community, and obtaining a free bank account and debit card," Heslin said. "The app's core banking features and functionality will initially include direct deposit, remote check capture, peer-to-peer payments (within Solvent accounts), and additionally DIY credit repair."
Heslin said the app also provides access to the financial literacy and entrepreneurship education content. Solvent will also offer a paid premium membership that unlocks "VIP access to exclusive content and an immersive online and offline experience for financial empowerment and wealth building, including discounts and rewards."
To date Solvent has secured $125,000 in funding from an unrestricted cash grant as part of the AWS Impact Accelerator for Black Founders. Heslin said Solvent is currently raising a $1M pre-seed round, and is in talks with select venture capital firms.
The company has six employees and is looking to start hiring within the next few months to stay in line with fundraising efforts, Heslin said.
"In the next year Solvent looks to be fully funded and sees the establishment of our brand equity in being the premium and obvious solution for the System Impacted around financial empowerment and wealth building, onboarding 100,000 customers, launching key initiatives, and establishing key partnerships to achieve those objectives," Heslin said.
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