Linker Finance: a bridge between community banks and Latino businesses

This platform is well-received throughout the country, particularly in the Midwest, Wisconsin, Chicago, California, Utah, and Alabama.

“We have a team that is working hard with the goal of initially serving about five banks across the country,” – Jorge García

By Migdalis Pérez

Los Angeles, CA – For Honduran-born entrepreneur Jorge García, three things are very clear: first, that one of the key elements for scaling a business is access to capital; second, that Latinos in the United States have difficulty obtaining it; and third, that community banks play a crucial role in addressing this problem.

He knows this from personal experience. When he needed to increase the credit line for his previous company, Hello Iconic, it wasn’t the large banking institutions that helped him, but a local entity. But he didn’t get discouraged. On the contrary, that experience was instrumental in motivating him to create Linker Finance in 2023.

In the process of opening that company in Pasadena, California, he researched and confirmed that, in fact, community banks are the ones that “finance 60% of loans for small and medium-sized businesses, and around 80% of agriculture,” therefore, “they have a very significant impact on the U.S. economy.”

The graduate of the Latino Business Action Network (LBAN) program at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, who emigrated to the U.S. in 2016, also discovered that the apps of these banks “are far behind the services offered by large financial institutions and modern Fintech companies, in terms of functionalities and cutting-edge technology,” something that seemed “curious, but also an opportunity, because there are more than 4,500 community banks nationwide.”

Of course, as an expert in launching global apps and platforms, he decided to investigate and found that, while there were some solutions to this problem, the existing ones were either very expensive, old and slow, or very fragmented, to the point that they only solved part of the problem.

That’s precisely why he created Linker Finance, which he describes as “a mobile and online banking solution, focused on community banks with a low-code philosophy, which not only allows for easy configuration, customization, and integration into the banking infrastructure, but also the incorporation of new Fintech technologies.” Backed by Techstars—one of the world’s leading business accelerators, based in Los Angeles, California—this platform has been well-received throughout the country, particularly in the Midwest, Wisconsin, Chicago, California, Utah, and Alabama, among other locations.

One of the main objectives is to empower community banks “with technology so they can better serve their customers,” including Hispanic individuals, who, according to García, experience the highest rates of loan denials.

“Latinos, and especially Latinas, are denied loans more often than other demographic groups,” he emphasized. “Therefore, we can serve as a bridge to give community banks greater access to the Latino community,” and to help more Latinos “become aware of the opportunities these banks offer and enable them to grow their businesses.”

He explained that “large financial institutions often say, ‘No, to provide you with the services you need, you have to be a client with revenues of $20 million or more.’ This leaves out many Latino-owned businesses that are very profitable but need capital to take the next step in their development.”

Linker Finance itself is a “Latino success story,” as he likes to say, because he, his co-founders, and employees are all Latino. Even a significant number of their investors, mentors, and advisors are also Latino, including several from Angeles Investors and Angeles Ventures, to name a few.

Regarding future plans, García revealed two fundamental objectives: first, to make Linker Finance the leading digital banking platform for community banks; and second, to lay the groundwork for it to eventually become a publicly traded company.

Currently, he concluded, “we have a team that is working hard” with the goal of initially serving about five banks nationwide, “and we are also preparing for a funding round to achieve our next milestones.”