Financial Finesse Invests in OfColor to Empower Employees of Color

In an effort to improve financial well-being among employees of color, Financial Finesse Ventures announced that it will invest in OfColor Inc., a minority-owned financial wellness platform that is “available to all, but unapologetically focused on the financial empowerment of employees of color.” 

The goal of the partnership is to accelerate OfColor, amplify Financial Finesse’s diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and make strides toward closing the racial wealth gap, a press release stated. 

Financial Finesse Ventures is an arm of wellness platform Financial Finesse and was founded in 2022. 

“We are beyond excited to partner with OfColor, a company whose mission speaks to my own goal of bringing critically needed financial wellness coaching to as many people as possible,” said Liz Davidson, CEO of Financial Finesse, in a press release. “OfColor is already making a name for itself as an influential changemaker in the industry. Together we will be able to meaningfully address the soaring rates of financial stress among employees of color, chip away at our country’s chronic racial wealth gap, and transform millions of financial lives.” 

With this capital investment, Financial Finesse will introduce OfColor to the more than 12,000 employers it currently serves, helping to scale OfColor’s reach and impact. In addition to funding, Financial Finesse will “consult with OfColor, leveraging its institutional knowledge of the financial wellness market to drive continued innovation, operational efficiencies and advancements in technology, data and analytics.” 

Yemi Rose, founder and CEO of OfColor, launched the platform in 2020 and has grown its client base by attracting numerous Fortune 100 clientsand leveraging fintech tools, culturally relevant content and financial coaching and therapy led by BIPOC coaches.  

“I wanted to build a platform where someone can talk to someone that looks like them and has similar experiences,” Rose says. “If you think about how the financial racial wealth gap impacts people of color, it’s through this lack of resiliency that manifests itself in hardship withdrawals. … So I wanted folks to be able to leverage fintech tools that help them to save, budget or build their resiliency.” 

Rose adds that it was important to offer financial literacy content that is relevant to the unique experiences of BIPOC employees.  

“There’s a lot within the personal finance writing, when directed at folks of color, that really ignores the systemic barriers to wealth creation and puts the onus solely on the individual,” Rose says. 

When a user logs on to OfColor, Rose explains that the user goes through an onboarding experience and is asked to select financial priorities. Then the platform matches the user with a financial coach based on their responses, and generates financial literacy content based on the topics they selected. Rose says all of the content, both written and video, is produced by people of color. 

Users can sign up for group coaching sessions on specific topics and can attach their bank accounts to the platform to take advantage of several personal financial management tools. 

With the Financial Finesse partnership, Rose says OfColor will have a dedicated space within the Financial Finesse hub website, so users will have the ability to come to one place for coaching sessions, financial literacy information, access to retirement information and more. 

“It’s an integration of the platforms without necessarily assimilation,” Rose says. “The goal is to ensure that employees can still access all our services easily, because employees like to go to one place and [access] a lot of [tools], as opposed to having different accounts and passwords.” 

Financial Finesse also announced Tuesday that it will expand its coaching benefits to Capital Group’s large plan sponsor clients. This offering comes at no additional cost for plan sponsors or their participants, according to Financial Finesse.  

When asked about details of the transaction, Maggie Weinberg, senior marketing director at Financial Finesse, stated, “As a standard business practice Financial Finesse Ventures does not disclose the details of specific investments.”