Killer Mike’s Greenwood mixes alternative banking with entertainment

Future. Killer Mike of Run the Jewels fame is launching a content arm of his alternative banking firm, Greenwood, in order to provide entertaining resources on all things finance. The company’s banking tools are set to debut next year, so the content studio may act as an intro to the company’s larger ambitions.

“Edutainment”
Killer Mike (real name Michael Render) is passionate not only about putting money back in the hands of his community, but also making sure that they have the tools to grow it.

• Render’s digital banking company, Greenwood, is launching a creative studio to produce financial education content.
• The first project is a team-up with the podcast Earn Your Leisure to create shows aimed at Black and Latinx audiences.
• Also in the hopper is a daily podcast called Money Moves, a documentary about Black Wall Street (the Tulsa neighborhood that the company is named after), and “Greenwood’s Greenbook,” which is an online directory of Black and Latinx-owned businesses across the U.S.

Greenwood, which has raised $40 million to date, was founded late last year by Render, former BounceTV chairman Ryan Glover, and former Atlanta mayor Andrew Young in order to offer alternative banking services for Black and Latinx communities, entrepreneurs, and small businesses.

The banking services are set to launch in early 2022, and already have half a million people on the waitlist.

Rebuilding Black Wall Street
Unfortunately, minority communities have historically faced an uphill battle when it comes to banking, investment services, and financial backing. According to data collected from the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, black loan applicants are denied 80% more than white applicants, while the Boston Consulting Group found that Black and Latinx households represent 64% of the total unbanked population and 47% of those that are underbanked.

Greenwood plans to change that through the “recirculation of capital” and ending the “predatory-lending practices” of payday lenders and check-cashing businesses. The content studio will kick things off by providing proper education (and hopefully entertainment) before the roll-out of the banking services.

Render summed up the mission when he said: “we want to help people build the confidence it takes to participate in this system, so we’re living in it and not under it.”