Serial entrepreneur and former recording artist Victor D. Lombard, often known as DIVINE, introduced this week the launch of a brand new firm, in partnership with RAKIM, considered one of hip-hop’s most influential emcees.
The corporate is called Notes, a fintech particularly for impartial city musicians and creators. It supplies the data and instruments to assist artists handle their careers — reminiscent of offering sources to assist them apply for loans or entry credit score scores. It supplies monetary literacy and music enterprise training by providing multimedia programs, step-by-step guides on monetary administration and easy methods to monetize music. It additionally has a function that lets artists write lyrics and join with their friends on the app.
Notes has a “digital passport” function that lets customers monitor credit score scores, entry loans, and price range instruments. The corporate companions with lenders and collectors and earns a fee on referral charges when customers apply for loans by way of the platform.
The app, at the moment in beta, has AI instruments, together with an AI voice assistant in RAKIM’s voice. It’s hoping to launch totally on the finish of February.
Chatting with TechCrunch, DIVINE mentioned he was impressed to launch this firm alongside RAKIM due to his firsthand expertise coping with the indie city music scene and the hardship that comes when attempting to fund a profession. It’s well-documented, by way of films, profiles, and music itself, that breaking into the music trade is hard and expensive. For each big-named artist that hits the charts, there are hundreds merely struggling to get by.
“The music trade, because it stands, is structured to reap the benefits of artists by way of exploitative contracts and restricted monetary sources, forcing them into predatory offers simply to outlive,” he mentioned. Having spent the previous 10 years building fintech corporations, he additionally mentioned he’s come to view expertise as a terrific equalizer, a technique to redistribute management again to artists and creators. DIVINE beforehand based fintech BLAK, which centered on serving underbanked communities, and constructed Solvent, a neobank additionally for underserved communities.
So he considered Notes, to permit musicians to teach themselves, fund their very own initiatives, and construct careers on their very own phrases. He mentioned now is an efficient time for this product as a result of indie artists and creators have gotten extra highly effective and influential, but nonetheless lack loads of monetary help.
DIVINE then pitched the corporate to RAKIM’s staff as a technique to associate, and “it grew to become an much more highly effective pressure for change,” DIVINE mentioned.
RAKIM is a part of the hip-hop group Eric B. & RAKIM, which made waves throughout the golden age of hip-hop throughout the 80s. Their album “Paid in Full” was listed as one of many Greatest Albums of All Time by Rolling Stone in 2020 because it was one of many first albums to make use of funk samples and influenced the circulate and lyricism of rappers to return.
DIVINE says he’s recognized RAKIM for 20 years and all the time admired him for “staying true to his artists and ideas.”
“Once I began ideating Notes, I knew it needed to be greater than only a fintech platform, it needed to be a motion rooted within the values of empowerment and cultural authenticity,” DIVINE continued. “That’s why it made excellent sense to convey RAKIM on board.”
The partnership sees RAKIM come on as a co-founder and as an advisory board member. RAKIM’s son, Tahmell Griffin, additionally holds an government place on the firm.
Proper now, the corporate is self-funded, however DIVINE mentioned the corporate is searching for a pre-seed spherical. Notes presents freemium and premium subscription memberships. It seeks to earn money from its subscription fashions and referral charges. He says this firm is the end result of his music and technological journey.
“I need Notes to shift the narrative from artists being exploited by file labels to artists proudly owning their monetary future and profession success,” DIVINE mentioned. “If an artist can use Notes to get funding for his or her subsequent album, discover ways to run their music profession as a enterprise, and leverage neighborhood collaboration for progress, then we’ve succeeded.”
Dominic-Madori Davis is a senior enterprise capital and startup reporter at TechCrunch. She is predicated in New York Metropolis. You possibly can contact her on Sign at +1 (646)-831-7565.