header icon
Solutions
header icon
Products
header icon
Platform
header icon
Developers
header icon
Company
English
English
GALILEO POWERS LATINO-FOCUSED FINTECH FORTÚ

Galileo Powers Latino-Focused Fintech Fortú

April 29, 2021

Fortú uses Galileo’s powerful APIs to build banking tools for under- and unbanked Latino communities.

Fortú, the Miami-based neobank that launched today to serve the needs of the Latino community, is built on the extensible payment processing platform provided by Galileo, the API standard for card issuing and digital banking. Fortú is focused on building culturally contextual financial services to meet the unique banking needs of Latinos and Hispanics in the U.S.

Fortú was founded by Charles Yim, a former Amazon Web Services and Google executive, and Apolo Doca, who previously helped build Lemon Bank, an early (pre-smartphone) Brazilian digital bank acquired by Banco do Brasil. Fortú has raised $5 million, spending the last year in stealth mode building its product. Fortú joins other industry-leading U.S. and LatAm fintech companies that use Galileo’s API-based platform.

The Fortú team is a mix of first- and second-generation immigrants with personal ties across Latin America (Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, etc.) and understands firsthand the tremendous quality-of-life improvement of culturally contextual financial products. According to Yim, the U.S. banking system is not well suited to serve Latinos, presenting obstacles ranging from big issues, such as regulations restricting how and when banks provide non-English language services, to smaller, high-impact issues, including greater embossing flexibility to avoid randomly truncating Latino names that don’t fit with the 24-character embossing standard.

“By creating products to answer the needs of Latinos, who are more likely than the general population to be under- and unbanked, Fortú has set itself apart from other neobanks, while transforming financial wellness for the Latino community,” said Galileo CEO Clay Wilkes. “Building on the flexible Galileo payments processing infrastructure makes it all possible.”

The Latino community is one of the fastest growing demographics in the U.S., yet college- educated Latinos are three times more likely to be underbanked than their Caucasian counterparts. According to the Federal Reserve, 10 percent of Hispanic adults are unbanked, and an additional 22 percent are underbanked.

“Compared to other demographics, Latinos in the U.S. are more likely to live in multigenerational and multilingual households, with a significant percentage needing to send regular cross-border remittances, leading to an over-reliance on non-bank financial services,” explained Doca. “Latinos have unique challenges in managing finances, which is why we chose the flexibility of Galileo to build Fortú from the ground up. We have created a way to offer the best set of mobile banking solutions--with features and functionality sets that address the needs of Gen Z to Baby Boomers--with our commitment to help face financial hardships and opportunities together.”

For more about Fortu, click here.

October 29, 2024

Another Strong Quarter for Galileo as Total Accounts Pass 160 Million

SoFi’s technology platform continued growing in the third quarter of 2024, with total enabled accounts and segment revenue both tallying double-digit-percent increases year-over-year.

See More
October 16, 2024

SoFi to Adopt Galileo's Cyberbank Core for Sponsor Banking

SoFi Technologies partners with Galileo to adopt Cyberbank Core, enhancing its new commercial payment services and sponsor banking program.

See More
September 25, 2024

Galileo Launches Secured Credit with Dynamic Funding

Discover how secured credit with dynamic funding helps banks and fintechs offer flexible credit-building solutions for consumers.

See More
September 10, 2024

Galileo Launches Instant Account Verification and ML Risk Score

New tools deliver real-time fraud detection for fintechs, banks and businesses and maintain frictionless account experiences for customers

See More
March 19, 2024

Galileo Launches BNPL Post-Purchase for Credit & Debit

The new BNPL post purchase offering helps banks and fintechs give consumers greater financial flexibility

See More