This fintech tool for people with disabilities just won a major pitch competition

Grean Wealth, a Baltimore-based startup building a financial literacy platform for people with disabilities, won $10,000 at a first-of-its-kind pitch competition.

Founder Ruby Taylor, who was selected as a finalist for the 2Gether-International event, envisions the product as a gamified learning tool featuring AI-powered tips and quizzes alongside a database of financial resources designed for people with disabilities. The platform’s name comes from the combination of “glean” and “growth.”

People with disabilities are more than twice as likely to live in poverty, per a 2022 report from think tank Century Foundation.

Taylor hopes her venture will help educate the community on building wealth.

“We are not in the discussion,” Taylor told Technical.ly. “I’m sick of us just focusing on financial survival instead of financial thriving, and the products that are out there were not made by us, and so they lack what we need, which is relatability.”

Helping people make the most of their savings

After suffering a traumatic brain injury more than a decade ago, Taylor lost her job as a social worker and struggled to find work. She eventually turned to investing and later launched Financial Joy School, a digital education platform that teaches financial planning to Black and Latino families. While working to address the racial wealth gap, she also noticed a lack of resources for the disabled community.

Taylor plans to use the prize money to further develop Grean Wealth’s platform, which will help people with disabilities build wealth while preserving eligibility for benefits like Supplemental Security Income and Medicaid. 

In particular, she aims to increase awareness of ABLE accounts, a savings and investment account for people with disabilities. Because some states have higher saving limits than others, Taylor wants to clarify how the system works.

Taylor intends to launch the platform Nov. 7. She’s also partnered with members of the Johns Hopkins Social Innovation Lab to help design the app’s user experience, per a recent LinkedIn post.

Having a disability as a competitive advantage 

2Gether-International (2GI), a startup accelerator for founders with disabilities, partnered with the National Disability Institute to host its first competition for Maryland-based entrepreneurs. 

More than 20 startups applied to participate, and five were selected to compete over Zoom. Along with Grean Wealth, they were:

• Flowgenius, an educational platform to help people with executive dysfunction 
• Cookie Yay, a cookie company for people with dietary restrictions
• GroovHero, an app that uses dance to support people with mental health challenges
• Arterial IQ, a medical device to measure plaque buildup and provide heart health insight 

2GI regularly hosts pitch competitions for members of its accelerator program to shift the narrative around disability, according to program director Santiago Garcia Mendez.

“Being an entrepreneur is all about resilience,” Mendez said. “It’s all about fighting to be the next unicorn or multimillion dollar company…we really see having a disability and understanding resilience as a competitive advantage for business.”