Latest news with #Cardenas
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Two College Dropouts Secured $41 Million To Revolutionize Industry-Specific Banking With Slash, Backed By Top VCs
Slash, the neo-bank launched by college dropouts Victor Cardenas and Kevin Bai, announced Tuesday it has closed a fresh $41 million funding round at a $370 million valuation, which was led by Goodwater Capital and supported by Menlo Ventures and New Enterprise Associates. The raise marks a definitive comeback after the company's core market, sneaker resellers, collapsed overnight, following Adidas' decision to end its collaboration with Kanye West, Fortune reports. Don't Miss: Hasbro, MGM, and Skechers trust this AI marketing firm — Maker of the $60,000 foldable home has 3 factory buildings, 600+ houses built, and big plans to solve housing — The idea for Slash emerged while Cardenas was studying at Stanford University and Bai at the University of Waterloo in Canada, Fortune says. As they explored different startup concepts, they discovered an ecosystem of sneaker resellers: young entrepreneurs generating substantial revenue but struggling to access essential banking tools. Many lacked incorporation or were too young to qualify for products like virtual credit cards, exposing a clear gap in the market. According to Fortune, that niche allowed the startup to quickly gain traction, especially as it offered virtual cards and other tools tailored to their needs. But when Adidas cut ties with Kanye West, the Yeezy resale economy collapsed. Slash saw its revenue fall by 80% almost instantly. The founders had announced on May 4 that they raised $19 million in earlier rounds, with dozens of employees onboard. According to Fortune, they faced a decision: double down on a dying niche or rebuild from scratch. Trending: 'Scrolling To UBI' — Deloitte's #1 fastest-growing software company allows users to earn money on their phones. Over the next 18 months, they chose to rebuild from scratch, transforming Slash into a vertical banking engine for underserved industries like crypto firms, HVAC companies, and performance marketing agencies, to name a few. Today, Slash processes roughly $300 million each month through its cards, Fortune reports. While competitors like Brex, Mercury, and Ramp spread their services across industries, Slash doubled down on vertical integration. Fortune says that the founders' approach is to design bespoke banking infrastructure for the unique workflows of specific sectors. In performance marketing, that means creating sub-accounts for each client so agencies can track ad spending and prepayment balances. In crypto, Slash enables companies to move between fiat and digital currencies while maintaining transparent internal finance systems. More than 1% of all Facebook ads are now purchased through Slash-issued cards, Fortune reports. "If we continue solving these niche, vertical, specific financial workflows for businesses across different industries, then we can sneakily become one of the largest commercial credit card issuers in the country," Cardenas told to a LinkedIn post, Goodwater Capital leads the new round, with NEA returning as a consistent backer since Slash's early stages. Other notable investors include figures like Joshua Browder of DoNotPay and Zach Abrams. According to Fortune, the startup also has support from Column, a tech-friendly chartered bank co-founded by a Plaid executive. Their partnership helped Slash navigate the recent turmoil around fintech infrastructure provider Synapse, which disrupted operations for many competitors. The current 35-person team plans to use the new capital to scale into more verticals, including online travel, property management, and e-commerce, Fortune says. As Slash continues to solve critical pain points in niche industries, it quietly positions itself as one of the fastest-growing commercial credit card issuers in the U.S. Read Next: Invest where it hurts — and help millions heal:. Deloitte's fastest-growing software company partners with Amazon, Walmart & Target – Image: Shutterstock UNLOCKED: 5 NEW TRADES EVERY WEEK. Click now to get top trade ideas daily, plus unlimited access to cutting-edge tools and strategies to gain an edge in the markets. Get the latest stock analysis from Benzinga? APPLE (AAPL): Free Stock Analysis Report TESLA (TSLA): Free Stock Analysis Report This article Two College Dropouts Secured $41 Million To Revolutionize Industry-Specific Banking With Slash, Backed By Top VCs originally appeared on © 2025 Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Exclusive: Two Gen Z college dropouts just raised $41 million for their ‘vertical banking' startup Slash
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.. The founders came up with Slash after playing around with different startup ideas while Cardenas studied at Stanford and Bai at the University of Waterloo, and learning about the vibrant community of sneaker resellers. Many of these resellers were generating substantial revenue but were unable to access key bank products, like virtual credit cards, because of their age or unincorporated status. Many fintech startups with a similar offering—like Mercury, Brex, and Ramp—take a horizontal approach by selling to companies across different industries. Cardenas and Bai decided to instead operate with a vertical model by creating banking services tailored for sneaker resellers, with the idea of expanding to other sectors. The strategy paid off, with Slash's revenue exploding and the startup raising seed and Series A rounds from top investors, with both rounds led by NEA. But when Kanye West began spouting anti-Semitic tirades, Adidas ended its partnership with the rapper, gutting one of sneaker resellers' most lucrative lines of business: Yeezys. Slash's revenue went down by 80% almost overnight. 'We had raised $19 million and hired all these people, but the market that was the bedrock of our company evaporated,' Cardenas told Fortune. For the past 18 months, Slash reworked its existing infrastructure to target other sectors: namely, performance marketing agencies, crypto firms, and HVAC operators. The pivot worked, with the startup now processing around $300 million a month on its cards. 'It's pretty rare that you get to see a team and a company at the stage they were at facing such a big existential risk, work their way out of it, and just start to thrive,' said NEA partner Rick Yang, who backed Slash in all three of their funding rounds. Cardenas argues that a vertical software approach to banking, where Slash can design services directly for specific sectors, makes more sense than trying to compete with fintech giants like Ramp and Mercury (which, in turn, are competing with American Express and Chase). Instead, by offering differentiated features, Slash can focus on certain client bases without spending massive amounts on customer acquisition. The first sector Slash targeted after the Kanye debacle was performance marketing firms, which run ads on behalf of e-commerce companies on platforms like Facebook and Google. Slash helped solve one of their biggest pain points: Allowing these firms to create distinct accounts within their banking system for each of their end customers to give visibility into key metrics, like how much prepayment is left. Now, according to Cardenas, more than 1% of all Facebook ads are bought with a Slash-issued card. Another vertical has been crypto-native businesses, where Slash enables companies to swap between fiat currency and crypto holdings, as well as manage all their various crypto holdings—an in-demand service, especially after many crypto firms were turned away by traditional banks under the Biden administration. With 35 employees, Slash plans to use the new funding to expand and tackle new sectors, with Cardenas eyeing e-commerce, online travel, and property managers as potential targets. 'If we continue solving these niche, vertical, specific financial workflows for businesses across different industries,' Cardenas told Fortune, 'Then we can sneakily become one of the largest commercial credit card issuers in the country.' Slash's raise is the latest round in the red-hot fintech sector, with peers like Plaid and Ramp announcing major funding in the past few months and late-stage unicorns like Chime and Circle preparing to go public. Until recently, many fintech startups were hampered by their ability to find agile partner banks, as well as the blow-up of the middleware banking-as-a-service startup Synapse, which connected fintechs and banks. Cardenas said that Slash's growth has been aided in part by its relationship with Column, a chartered bank started by a Plaid cofounder designed to work with tech firms. 'Of all the partner banks that we talked to, they're the most thorough and they're the ones that actually wanted to get to know our business the absolute best,' Cardenas told Fortune. This story was originally featured on
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Yahoo
Inmate with local ties on the lam
State correctional officers and law enforcement agencies are on the lookout for a Sanford man who escaped from minimum-custody at Hyde Correctional Center in Swan Quarter in eastern North Carolina on Thursday, May 1. Francisco Cardenas, 32, is native American, 6 feet, 1 inch tall and weighs 130 pounds. He has brown eyes and a tattoo of a star on his left hand, a press release states. Cardenas, who was convicted in Lee County and showed addresses at 529 McIver St. and 1768 Nicholson Road in 2019, according to eCourts, is serving a five-to-eight-year sentence for drug trafficking. He was scheduled for release in January 2029. Anyone who sees Cardenas is asked to call local law enforcement or the Hyde Correctional Center at 252-926-1810.
News.com.au
06-05-2025
- Sport
- News.com.au
Unbeaten megastar Naoya Inoue survives shock knockdown against 100-1 outsider
Unbeaten Japanese superstar Naoya Inoue has retained his undisputed super bantamweight world crown, climbing off the canvas to stop 100-1 underdog American Ramon Cardenas in the eighth round in Las Vegas. Inoue improved to 30-0 with his 27th victory inside the distance when referee Thomas Taylor halted the fight 45 seconds into the eighth round after a flurry of powerhouse punches by the champion with Cardenas only able to cover up. 'Watching the fight, everybody is very much aware I like to brawl,' Inoue said. Inoue was knocked down for only the second time in his career, by a left hook from the huge underdog in the second round, but the champion adjusted and pressed the attack from there. 'I was very surprised but I was able to calmly pull myself together,' Inoue said through a translator. 'In the first round, I thought I had pretty good distance but in the second round it kind of got a little loose. And then from then thereafter I made sure I didn't take that punch again.' While most expected Inoue to easily account for his opponent, he and Cardenas delivered what was surprisingly one of the most entertaining fights of the year. Inoue, considered to be among the top pound-for-pound fighters in the world, was due to defend his titles against Sam Goodman in December before the Australian's dream bout cruelly had to be scrapped when he suffered a cut in sparring just days out from the fight. Goodman fights Cesar Vaca in Sydney next week and remains hopeful of a future bout with Inoue. The 32-year-old Japanese star nicknamed 'The Monster' defended his undisputed world title in the 122-pound (55.3kg) division for the fourth time. The fight marked his return to Las Vegas for the first time in four years, Inoue fighting outside Japan for the first time since 2021. Inoue was coming off a fourth-round knockout of South Korea's Kim Ye-joon in Tokyo in January. Inoue has not been taken to the 12-round maximum distance in a fight since a 2019 unanimous decision victory over Filipino Nonito Donaire, having won 11 fights since. Cardenas, 29, fell to 26-2 but made a game effort in his first world title fight. 'Odds-wise he was really far apart but I knew he was tough,' Inoue said. 'Boxing is not that easy.' Cardenas knocked down Inoue in the final seconds of the second, the Japanese star landing on his rear and quickly getting to his knees and rising just before the round ended. Inoue attacked with the jab in the third round, but Cardenas defended well and threatened again with the left, knocking the champion back and following with a solid right. In the fourth round, both fighters exchanged powerful, punishing punches as Inoue backed the challenger into a corner and unleashed a furious barrage, but Cardenas escaped and responded in a toe-to-toe slugfest as the crowd roared. Inoue pressed the attack with his left hand in the fifth, but took a body punch that backed him off. An Inoue left to the body hurt Cardenas midway into round six and the champion unleashed a battering series of punches as the American covered up and made it through a round where Inoue landed 33 power punches. A hard right by Inoue stung and a solid left to the body doubled Cardenas over in the seventh. A punishing series of four right hands to the head by Inoue sent Cardenas staggering back into the corner ropes, squatting there in a knockdown for Inoue before the bell sounded to end the round. After a powerful right hand by Inoue early in the eighth round, Cardenas was staggered and against the ropes, prompting referee Taylor to jump between the battlers and stop the fight. Inoue was already being eyed by rivals even before his bout began. 'I know a fight against Naoya Inoue, that's what would catapult me into stardom,' said Mexico's unbeaten Rafael Espinosa, who improved to 27-0 with a seventh-round stoppage of American Edward Vazquez on the undercard to defend his WBO featherweight crown.
Kuwait Times
05-05-2025
- Sport
- Kuwait Times
Inoue knocked down but stops Cardenas to keep crown
LOS ANGELES: Unbeaten Naoya Inoue of Japan retained his undisputed super bantamweight world crown on Sunday, climbing off the canvas to stop American Ramon Cardenas in the eighth round in Las Vegas. Inoue improved to 30-0 with his 27th victory inside the distance when referee Thomas Taylor halted the fight 45 seconds into the eighth round after a flurry of powerhouse punches by the champion with Cardenas only able to cover up. 'Watching the fight, everybody is very much aware I like to brawl,' Inoue said. Inoue was knocked down for only the second time in his career, by a left hook from the heavy underdog in the second round, but the champion adjusted and pressed the attack from there. 'I was very surprised but I was able to calmly pull myself together,' Inoue said through a translator. 'In the first round, I thought I had pretty good distance but in the second round it kind of got a little loose. And then from then thereafter I made sure I didn't take that punch again.' The 32-year-old Japanese star nicknamed 'The Monster' defended his undisputed world title in the 122-pound (55.3kg) division for the fourth time. The fight marked his return to Las Vegas for the first time in four years, Inoue fighting outside Japan for the first time since 2021. Inoue was coming off a fourth-round knockout of South Korea's Kim Ye-joon in Tokyo in January. Inoue has not been taken to the 12-round maximum distance in a fight since a 2019 unanimous-decision victory over Filipino Nonito Donaire, having won 11 fights since. 'Not that easy' Cardenas, 29, fell to 26-2 but made a game effort in his first world title fight. 'Odds-wise he was really far apart but I knew he was tough,' Inoue said. 'Boxing is not that easy.' Cardenas knocked down Inoue in the final seconds of the second, the Japanese star landing on his rear and quickly getting to his knees and rising just before the round ended. Inoue attacked with the jab in the third round, but Cardenas defended well and threatened again with the left, knocking the champion back and following with a solid right. In the fourth round, both fighters exchanged powerful, punishing punches as Inoue backed the challenger into a corner and unleashed a furious barrage, but Cardenas escaped and responded in a toe-to-toe slugfest as the crowd roared. Inoue pressed the attack with his left hand in the fifth, but took a body punch that backed him off. An Inoue left to the body hurt Cardenas midway into round six and the champion unleashed a battering series of punches as the American covered up and made it through a round where Inoue landed 33 power punches. A hard right by Inoue stung, and a solid left to the body doubled Cardenas over in the seventh. A punishing series of four right hands to the head by Inoue sent Cardenas staggering back into the corner ropes, squatting there in a knockdown for Inoue before the bell sounded to end the round. After a powerful right hand by Inoue early in the eighth round, Cardenas was staggered and against the ropes, prompting referee Taylor to jump between the battlers and stop the fight. Inoue was already being eyed by rivals even before his bout began. 'I know a fight against Naoya Inoue, that's what would catapult me into stardom,' said Mexico's unbeaten Rafael Espinosa, who improved to 27-0 with a seventh-round stoppage of American Edward Vazquez on the undercard to defend his World Boxing Organization featherweight crown. — AFP
