Plenty of startups have had to pivot from their original business idea, but Slash may be the first one to do so because of Kanye West. Slash started out providing banking services to sneaker resellers, but after the rapper’s anti-Semitic rants tanked the market, cofounders Victor Cardenas and Kevin Bai decided to create bespoke banking lines for other industries instead. The pivot proved to be a success.
On Tuesday, Slash announced it has closed a $41 million Series B round at a $370 million valuation led by Goodwater Capital. The startup will use the funding, which comes two years after it raised $19 million in Series A and seed funding, to expand its business providing specialized financial services as a neo-bank. The neo-bank model means offering a limited array of banking services without the overhead of physical branches or a full-blown bank license..
