TikTok Star Charli D’Amelio Invests In Mobile Banking Service For Teens

TikTok’s most popular user Charli D’Amelio has invested in Step, a mobile banking service aimed specifically at teens.

Step announced Wednesday that it has raised over $50 million in Series B funding, TechCrunch reported. D’Amelio, 16, is excited about her first startup investment and is optimistic about the future of the company.

“As a Step partner and customer, I’ve been able to see firsthand how easy Step makes it to manage your money while providing the educational resources that today’s teens need but have largely been unable to find—myself included,” the TikTok star said in a statement.

“I’m excited to be able to use my platform to help close this gap and have made a direct investment in Step to help them develop even more useful products,” added D'Amelio, who recently became the first TikTok user to reach 100 million followers.

Step has grown to more than 500,000 users in a period of just two months following its official launch. It features a range of elements seen in apps such as Venmo, Apple Pay and PayPal, enabling users to transfer money to friends via peer-to-peer technology.

Step targets teenagers aged 13 to 19 and provides them with an FDIC-insured bank account. Its "no fees" policy, combined with a secured Visa card, enables youngsters to establish credit even before they turn 18.

Meanwhile, D’Amelio is not the only celebrity who invested in Step as Justin Timberlake and the Chainsmokers are also excited about the company’s concept and participated in this round. Huge names from the sports world such as Kelvin Beachum, Eli Manning, Andre Iguodala and Larry Fitzgerald complete the list of celebrity investors.

The startup also found investors in companies such as Coatue, Stripe, Crosslink Capital, Collaborative Fund and Will Smith’s Dreamers VC.

By partnering with more young influencers and celebrities, Step intends to pull in more teen customers and offer everything, from helping them build good credit to acquiring student loans.

Talking about the startup's future plans, Step founder and CEO CJ MacDonald said, “Student loans are a big thing. Being able to extend credit to these folks. Being able to offer new products and services so they’re not paying these outrageous, predatory banking fees and high interest credit cards.”

This is undoubtedly a huge step for D’Amelio. Now, it remains to be seen if Step will be able to tap into her 101 million TikTok followers and get them to hop on the new mobile banking service.