Every startup appears on some grand social (or environmental) mission these days. And in fintech, “financial health” is definitely en vogue (nice job, Financial Health Network). Like most of our founders, we at Core believe that the real purpose for starting something new is not ultimately to make a killing…

The Core team has long said that while we respect shrewd mercenaries as well as tree-hugging missionaries, we don’t invest in either of those archetypes. Instead, we back misfits, who are a wondrous alchemy of the two. Lately, we quip that Core targets mercenary returns by investing in missionary companies…

About 100 years ago, the government started making auto insurance mandatory. But it took 50 years for a full suite of “financial responsibilities” laws to become implemented across the country (except, of course, in New Hampshire, where “Live Free or Die” is not just a figure of speech). Most people…

by Felicity Hassan and Arjan Schütte I believe in the strategic advantage that a diverse leadership team can bring to a fast-growing and innovative business. This is one of the reasons why we make diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) a priority in our hiring and funding practices. While we are…

By 2035, for the first time in American history, the number of older adults will exceed the number of children. They will live longer than ever before. That’s great, except 80% of working-age households have less than one year of their annual income in retirement savings. 40% of people entering…

By Arjan Schütte, with David Roos We recently issued a challenge to the fintech community to think outside the box and align the march of progress with financial emancipation for Black people. This was born from the blatant, but constantly ignored truth that if you happen to be born Black…

“The CIP section of the KYC policy was criticized by the FDIC as inconsistent with FinCEN guidance, resulting in an MRIA in the BSA/AML exam.” Nothing like a slew of acronyms to let it be known you’re in the know. I try to speak English as much as possible (despite…

About a month ago, two Black-owned banks merged, making the combined institution, City First Bank, the largest in the nation… and approximately the 1000th-largest bank in the US. This reflects the relatively good news of dynamism in banking focused Black economic empowerment and the gravity of the challenge. We wrote…

Core was originally inspired by microlending in the developing world and in anger at the payday industry in the US. And to this day, we still believe great things come from combining missionary ambition with mercenary execution. In our earliest days, we were focused on fintech for the underbanked. We…