Led by LGBT+ entrepreneurs and co-founders Rob Curtis and Billie Simmons, Daylight says it is the first banking platform designed specifically to improve financial equality and inclusion for the community.

The company plans to begin a beta phase with a few hundred customers in December before expanding across the US.

Customers will get a Visa prepaid card in their preferred name, even it it does not math their legal ID; financial tools to improve spending habits with the ability to customise goals and share them with the Daylight member community; a personalised feed of expert financial advice; and the opportunity to make direct donations to LGBT+ aligned charities.

Curtis says that while many companies are now "performatively supporting" LGBT+ people, they are not serving their unique needs. Overall, says Daylight, the community has accumulated higher debt on average due to pre-existing conditions, lower insurance levels, HIV management needs, and transition costs.

"While it’s wonderful that financial service companies join us in Pride marches, too few have absorbed our community’s critical challenges with banking or applied end-to-end systemic solutions tailored to the community’s unique life events,” says Curtis.

The product is built on Marqeta's issuing platform and Daylight is also joining Visa's fintech Fast Track programme, giving it access to the reach, capabilities and security of VisaNet.

Terry Angelos, SVP and global head of fintech, Visa, says: “By partnering with companies like Daylight, we are working to create a more inclusive and accessible financial ecosystem, and will remain committed to creating offerings for those who have long been underrepresented in this sector.”

While Daylight is an LGBT+ first, it is part of a growing trend of fintech startups targeting underserved part of American society. In October, Citi teamed up with Mastercard to begin offering transgender and non-binary people the ability to use their chosen name on eligible credit cards.

Meanwhile, in recent months two outfits - Tenth and Greenwood - have unveiled digital banking platforms aimed at Black and Latinx communities and tackling the wealth gap that they face.

Digital payments will be discussed in depth at EBAday 2020. For delegate passes, register now and join leaders from across Europe's payments ecosystem as EBAday addresses 'The Turning Point in Payments Transformation'.