Plastyc, a US-based provider of financial services for people without access to mainstream lenders, has raised $2m from Core Innovation Capital, quasi-corporate venturing unit of the Center for Financial Services Innovation, a non-profit organization for the so-called underbanked.
Plastyc’s iBankUP money management service and UPside line of prepaid Visa debit cards is aimed at the estimated 60 million people in the US who do not frequent banks or credit unions.
Reloadable, prepaid cards, which offer banking services without a traditional bank account, have grown by 60% per year since 2007, according to the Aite Group.
Mike Harris, a partner at Core who will join the board of directors of Plastyc, said: "[Plastyc] is a perfect fit for our mission to provide the best value to underbanked consumers by supporting growth-stage financial technology companies."
Prior to founding Plastyc, its chief executive Patrice Peyret sold Mobile365 to Sybase (now part of SAP) in an all cash $425m transaction in 2006. He also founded Integrity Arts, a smart card technology company acquired by Sun Microsystems (now part of Oracle) in 1997.