Today is an important day for the LGBT + community. November 18th, 2020 marks the launch of Daylight, our latest portfolio venture that we’ve been working on the last year. One of the co-founders of Vacuumlabs, Matej Ftacnik, is a long term supporter of the LGBT+ community in Slovakia and has been leading the effort to build a new venture in this space for quite some time

As part of our venture-building initiatives, he came up with the idea of a bank that tackles the inherent problems of the LGBT+ community and in early 2020, he brought in the founding team Rob Curtis and Billie Simmons – which has greatly contributed to the business ever since. After a period of intensive support and hands-on collaboration with Matej and the Vacuumlabs venture team, the Daylight team has received the necessary initial funding and technology resources to drive Daylight forward on its own.

Matej continues to be involved as the Chairman of the Board for Daylight. Rob Curtis has said:

“What we love about Matej is that it took a Slovak activist to take a chance on building a company that would have such an impact on the LGBT+ community in the USA. Ultimately, without him, whatever impact we achieve as a business wouldn’t be possible. And we are excited to work with him on the Board.”

Vacuumlabs acts as the technology partner that is powering the development of Daylight’s digital banking platform alongside Visa and Marqeta.

“Combining the power of Vacuumlabs’ world-class fintech engineering talent and our knowledge of the LGBT+ community in the US makes this the ideal partnership to build a major bank of affinity that helps LGBT+ people prepare for the future faster,” says Billie Simmons. 

Founded in 2020, Daylight is the first and only digital banking platform in the U.S. specifically designed for and by the LGBT+ community. Daylight’s card, app and digital services prepare members for the future faster by helping them to navigate the finance system, generate smarter habits and connect with a community working together to build the life they deserve without compromise. Daylight is backed by financial and payment industry icons Visa and Marqeta. To learn more, visit joindaylight.com.

Why is Daylight so important

Daylight’s card, app and digital services are built for us, by us. It offers access to the right kind of financial management tools, insights and best practices from other LGBT+ experts about things that make LGBT+ money unique. Daylight gives its members an affirming space to share goals and cheer each other on. And for the biggest challenges, such as having children, preparing for retirement and transitioning, Daylight connects you to expert advisors who can help you break these into manageable pieces, track your progress and get there faster.

Features

• Visa-branded spending cards in your preferred name, even if it doesn’t match your legal ID
• Financial tools to improve spending habits with the ability to customize tracking goals 
• A personalized feed of expert financial advice and resources unique to LGBT+
• Ability to access a network of live finance coaches specializing in LGBT+ money management and life events
• Opportunities to make direct donations within the platform to LGBT+ aligned charities
• Financial tools to improve spending habits with the ability to customize goals and share them with their member community

What’s next?

We will be bringing you the latest news, and updates on Daylight. Don’t forget to visit joindaylight.com and to follow our blog and podcast.