By Stephone Coward
- Ray Dalio has a $5M dollar stake in Cash App’s parent company Block and has been a mentor to Sean “Diddy” Combs
- The Black community makes up 13.8% of the unbanked and 31.1% of the underbanked
Billionaire Ray Dalio wants to know “What’s yo Cash App?”. The founder of Bridgewater Associates, which is the largest hedge fund in the world, is putting his money, power, and respect behind making Cash App the bank of Gen Z. This growing age bracket opts for financial technology for their banking needs more than traditional in person banking. With the Black community making up 13.8% of the unbanked and 31.1% of the underbanked group in the U.S., Cash App like so many in the business community, are banking on Hip Hop culture and Dalio’s connection with its major influencers to appeal to younger generations.
Why This Matters: A 2019 FDIC Survey of Household Use of Banking and Financial Services found an estimated 5.4%, or 7.1 million, U.S. households were “unbanked” meaning no one had a checking or savings at a bank or credit union. The Wall Street Journal reported that in 2019 nearly 59 million smartphone owners had installed Cash App and expected volume of Americans using their cell phones to transfer funds to one another to increase 26% to $211 billion. Dalio, the septuagenarian, is lending his influence to be a part of Cash App’s strategy to appeal to younger users, underbanked, and unbanked.
Dalio, who has a $5 million dollar stake in Block (SQ -0.92%%), the parent company of Cash App, does have ties to the Hip Hop community. He has been a mentor to the music business mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, so it doesn’t come as a surprise to see him attempt to wield the power infinity that is Hip Hop to ensure a strong ROI. Dalio recently appeared in a Cash App ad where Kendrick Lamar served as a translator between him and Exavier TV, for a discussion about financial freedom.
Situational Awareness: Hip Hop is rightfully the apple of Cash App’s eye. Not only have numerous Black celebrities partnered with the fintech app like Megan Thee Stallion, about 200 Hip Hop artists name-check Cash App in their lyrics, according to music database Genius. The genre was a major contributor to growing Cash App’s monthly active users from seven million in 2017, to 30 million in 2020.
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