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Tulsa, Oklahoma-based Totem Technologies is shutting down, the fintech’s founder and CEO Amber Buker said in a LinkedIn post late last week.
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“Totem has reached the end of its journey,” writes Buker in a publish on the site.
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The neobank, which had raised about $2.2 million in pre-funding, had about 500 customers, according to Buker.
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Totem introduced himself as “banking by and for indigenous peoples,” who, according to the report, are more likely to not have a bank account and live further from bank branches. The fintech, which had a mobile banking app offering a spending account, debit card and early access to paychecks, rolled out its product to consumers in July 2023, An American banker reported.
First Pryority Bank, based in Pryor, Oklahoma, provided banking services to Totem and issued the fintech’s debit card. The startup’s website also states that it shares a portion of the revenue with its tribal partners. One of them was the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, which would publicize Totem’s services to its members in exchange for a cut of the fintech’s interchange revenue.
In his LinkedIn post, Buker did not provide details about when Totem informed customers of the company’s closure, or what specifically led to the startup’s demise. But she suggested investors want to see more progress, faster, from fintech.
“We built an ethical business model that showed it is possible to serve “at risk” or “niche” populations when you build holistically and leverage the broader needs of their communities through value-added services like payments,” said Buker, a enrolled citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. “But companies looking to serve Indian Country can only do so at a pace they can trust. And it happens much more slowly than the pace at which a venture-backed company is expected to scale.
Buker did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Neither did Raven Indigenous Capital Partners, a Canadian venture capital firm that invested in Totem.
Buker remains involved in litigation with Richard Chance, fintech co-founder and former chief technology officer. Last year, he accused Buker of denying him a promised stake in the company, American Banker reported. He also said she had threatened legal action against him for misappropriation of the fintech’s intellectual property.
“I am incredibly proud of the work we have accomplished in just two years to improve the financial well-being and access to banking services of Native Americans across the country,” Buker wrote. “We have created a thoughtful and culturally relevant banking product for our employees. »
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