A new digital banking venture is a step toward ensuring no community is left financially underserved.
Kimberly Morgan and Anu Shultes
After meeting through a mutual acquaintance nearly two years ago, Anu Shultes and Kimberly Morgan forged a dynamic partnership. “I knew right off the bat when I met her that she’s someone I want to be working a long time with,” Shultes says. The pair bonded over their shared desire to focus their work in finance on helping underserved communities, which, as Shultes, who as an immigrant was once underserved herself, confirms are much larger groups than we think.
Now, after 15 years of asking “How do we bring mainstream banking to the masses?,” AHEAD provides an answer to that question. AHEAD is a digital banking app and platform that, through engaging programming such as celebrity-hosted Twitch streams and educational metrics in the app, offers a holistic approach to achieving and maintaining financial well-being. “We’ve been targeting opportunities to meet customers where they are instead of customers having to find us when they get to a situation of a transition or a financial mishap,” says Morgan, AHEAD’s COO. Shultes, AHEAD’s CEO, adds, “We’re not just going to give them an account they can transact with but become part of their life… and I want them to be part of AHEAD’s life—that means we will do it together.” Rooted at the intersection of culture, community and inclusion, AHEAD is the foundation to improving its users’ relationships with money—and getting them one step ahead.
Photography by: PHOTO BY JORGE TORRES/COURTESY OF AHEAD FINANCIALS
