Mical Jeanlys-White created WealthMore out of frustration.

After spending years on Wall Street, constructing products at American Express and serving as a managing director at JPMorgan Chase, she realized the financial industry still had a long option to go in helping consumers construct and understand wealth.

“Seventy percent of Americans don’t have access to a financial advisor because of high account minimums and high fees, yet people who use a financial advisor are accumulating twice as much wealth,” she told TechCrunch. “When I tried to find a financial advisor, I encountered the same frustrating, broken experience.”

Its response was to launch WealthMore, an investment platform that requires a deposit of just $5,000 so clients can connect with advisor-led portfolios, licensed financial advisors and financial planning services.

The idea got here to her while riding her Peloton bike.

“I like to say WealthMore is Peloton meets wealth management,” she said. “Our goal is to normalize that for the 99 percent. When more people are doing better financially, the social and multiplier impact is significant.”

After two years of constructing the corporate, the corporate beta version quietly launched in June and is officially announcing it today, here at TechCrunch.

Building the product was a deeply personal journey for Jeanlys-White. Her grandmother had immigrated to the U.S. from Haiti and was the family’s unofficial financial coach. Like many immigrants, she belonged to a savings club that helped her achieve her goals and put a down payment on a house. She enjoyed talking about money and being around like-minded people.

“But her money was wasted in low-interest savings accounts and deposits,” Jeanlys-White continued. “She never made it onto a bank roll. With the help of a financial advisor, she could have become a millionaire and created wealth for generations to come.”

The difference in racial wealth is large. Federal the info shows that While median black wealth increased from $27,970 to $44,890 between 2019 and 2022, those numbers still lag behind other racial groups. Latino households have a median wealth of $62,000, white households have a median wealth of $295,000, and Asian American households have a median wealth of $536,000. The 2021 U.S. Census found that white households own 80% of the country’s wealth, compared with 4.7% for black households. This racial wealth gap has been hard to shut because some experts believing that it might take one other hundred years to succeed in similar levels.

Jeanlys-White notes that girls stand to lose no less than $1.2 million as a consequence of the gender pay gap, and only 49% of black women have a 401K compared with 62% of all adults. “The pay gap is a key contributor to the retirement savings and wealth gap,” she said.

Researching potential users and constructing a brand

Before she began constructing the platform, Jeanlys-White surveyed greater than 300 potential users to learn how much they’d be willing to pay. That helped her set the corporate’s pricing tiers—there are three tiers, starting at $25 monthly with a $5,000 minimum account—and the design of the positioning. She partnered with Apex Clearing Corporation to offer brokerage services.

To help construct its brand, the corporate launched lifestyle products like clothing and hosted wealth-building talks at hair salons, doctor’s offices and conferences. “People were willing to be honest and open with us.” In addition, Jeanlys-White made sure the platform featured a diverse range of wealth advisors, saying wealth builders often don’t see themselves represented within the industry.

On the app, the corporate has created communities like #firstgenwealth and #newinvestors where people can join and organize classes and events. “We created communities like #blkwomenhealth to address these unique factors and empower our community to leverage investments and sound financial planning to get ahead,” Jeanlys-White told TechCrunch. (She said users can find her at #firstgenwealth, #blkwomenwealth, and #womenwhowealth.)

Despite the difficult financial environment for fintech firms, Jeanlys-White began fundraising for her company in October 2023 and closed an oversubscribed pre-seed round of no less than $1 million led by Emmeline Ventures in April 2024. Other investors include a16z TxO, BFM Fund, and First Row Partners.

She mentioned that early investors had expressed concerns about previous fintech firms that had struggled within the space, but she continued to flesh out the corporate’s story.

“Once investors were able to ‘see’ the product, the pace of our fundraising changed dramatically,” she added.

The team now has 10 people. The first hire was a head of engineering because Jeanlys-White was not a technical founder and needed someone to assist her get the product to users, she said.

She hopes the corporate will come out of beta by the tip of the 12 months, in time to assist people achieve their financial New Year’s resolutions. For now, Jeanlys-White is just excited to see people start using the platform, and she or he thinks back to her grandmother’s experiences.

“She would love WealthMore,” she said, noting that she would especially love the communities. “Our wealth advisors would help her overcome her fear of the stock market, and that would be a huge win. She smiles at WealthMore.”