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.
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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.
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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 Fortune.According 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.
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This article Two College Dropouts Secured $41 Million To Revolutionize Industry-Specific Banking With Slash, Backed By Top VCs originally appeared on Benzinga.com
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