Insights
Why We Invested: ResilienceVC
By Megan McCarthy
At Blue Haven Initiative, we’ve supported companies and funds that expand access to financial services to underserved communities and businesses since we started investing for impact more than a decade ago.
The fintech market around the world has exploded since then, reaching global revenue of almost $80 billion last year. Even with this growth, most fintech companies don’t address entrenched inequities in financial services and products; nor do they make a meaningful difference to people who need access to them. Recent financial health reports show rising levels of financial vulnerability among Americans, especially communities of color and younger populations. Overall, the share of financially vulnerable Americans in 2023 grew to 17% in 2023 from 15% in 2022 after dipping during the pandemic. Black, Latinx and younger people experienced a disproportionate share of the increase.
The persistent underserved segment is a central driver of our new partnership with Washington, D.C.-based ResilienceVC, a seed-stage venture fund aimed at helping low- to moderate-income Americans and underserved small businesses become more financially resilient.
Led by cofounders and managing partners Tahira Dosani and Vikas Raj, ResilienceVC invests in startups that make financial tools relevant and affordable for U.S. consumers and business owners, especially those overlooked by traditional financial companies. The fund invests around a thesis of “embedded finance,” which enables nonfinancial services and companies to offer or access financial functions such as payments and credit. Picture a small business financing a purchase from a supplier at the click of a button at the point of sale rather than pausing the transaction to look for a loan. Or envision a worker accessing wages early instead of turning to a pay-day lender.
“There’s a crisis in financial vulnerability in this country that access to financial services is not solving,” says Raj. “People in the U.S. may have access to banking product and credit, but the financial system isn’t working for them in a way that removes vulnerability and drives resilience.”
We first worked with Dosani and Raj at Accion Venture Lab, a seed-stage venture capital impact fund that focuses on inclusive fintech and a firm Blue Haven has long supported. There, Raj and Dosani invested in and managed a portfolio of 51 fintech companies around the world and managed more than $40 million in capital.
ResilienceVC’s portfolio of U.S.-based B2B and B2C companies in embedded finance includes exciting startups PartnerSlate, which helps emerging food brands connect with contract manufacturers and working capital; EarlyBird, which provides micro-investing tools to help families save for their children’s futures; and Alice, a startup that helps small- and mid-sized employers easily offer pretax spending benefits to workers.
“We’re trying to find innovators among early-stage startups that are working to make financially vulnerable customers more resilient,” says Dosani, noting that their support for founders includes the offer of three months of coaching.
With embedded finance poised to have a scalable and meaningful impact in fintech,
ResilienceVC and its growing team is adding more companies to their portfolio in 2024. They are also actively fundraising the next close of their $50 million fund.
Having partnered with Dosani and Raj in various ways over the years, we are delighted to support this next big step in their journey at ResilienceVC. And we admire their own resilience as they support the entrepreneurs making financial services work for all Americans.