The Brazilian Couple Building A New ‘Banking Engine’ For Latinos In The U.S.

Editor’s note: This article originally appeared on Hypepotamus as part of its “Get to Know the CEO” series. It is published on Global Atlanta as part of our content partnership with the Southeast’s top source for innovation news. Sign up for Hypepotamus newsletters here. 

Husband and wife team Rodrigo Dantas e Silva and Danielle Hirsch were established professionals when they moved from Brazil to Atlanta in 2017. Silva had built up his career at international banks and at industry giants like Accenture and EY. Hirsch had an impressive resume filled with work in the finance and banking technology space.

Their family moved to the States for Silva’s job with EY, but they soon ran into a massive problem: Even professionals moving to the States struggle to participate in the U.S. financial system. Hirsch, like many other new arrivals, couldn’t even get a Target card because she didn’t have a U.S. credit score. Without financial independence and stability, she found it difficult to establish a life in the U.S.

As industry professionals, the couple knew there had to be a FinTech solution that could help. After conducing their own research and consumer interviews, the couple incorporated the neobank startup Gabriel Money in January 2023 with Silva as CEO and Hirsch as COO.

Silva describes Gabriel Money as a “banking engine to help young Latinos have full access to the financial system.” The financial empowerment app gives users access to a secured card and e-wallet, ensuring that they don’t have to rely solely on cash.

The goal is to help young Latinos “fulfill the American dream as any other American citizens does” through financial independence, Silva added. On top of access to a physical card (which can be difficult to obtain from a traditional U.S. bank or credit card company for new arrivals to the country), Gabriel provides a suite of educational tools to help users understand the U.S. financial system and how to improve their credit score.

As the platform grows, Silva said that Gabriel Money will look to build out more non-predatory financing products to help users as their financial journey grows.

The FinTech Startup World

Building something like Gabriel Money is important to Silva and Hirsch, since Latinos coming into the U.S. often bring a different understanding of how credit bureaus function. Part of that is cultural, since names are only reported to a credit bureau in many Latin American countries if a person is in debt and not for a “positive” reason like getting access to a credit score that can help a person build wealth.

The team also feels the time is right to grow such a startup. Latinos are becoming an increasingly large percentage of the country’s startup population and have more purchasing power than ever before.

Building in Atlanta is also strategic, since the Georgia has one of the largest and continuously growing Latino populations in the U.S.

Silva said that the team selected the name Gabriel Money because it encapsulates the “beliefs, behaviors, and attitudes” of the Latino audience. Gabriel, coming from the archangel Gabriel in the Bible, is a “reference to taking care of others and caring about your needs.”

While just a year and a few months into operation, Gabriel Money has grown to be nine people with an office in Atlanta Tech Village. In 2024, the team is focused on finding product market fit and finding ways to “cautiously, economically, and efficiently grow the team.”

The team is also focused on growing Atlanta’s B2C (business to consumer) fintech scene.

“The Atlanta FinTech ecosystem is super mature and strong on what I call the “first generation” FinTechs. FinTechs that were born to enable the banks to be more efficient on their businesses. When it comes to the Business-to-Business SaaS (software as a service) approach, I think Atlanta is second to none. When it comes to customer-facing FinTechs, the overall ecosystem is not fully comfortable with it yet….but I think that might be the next opportunities for our FinTech ecosystem to evolve. We are proud to be here.”