SUMA (which in English means “sum”), is an app aimed at young Latinos that replaces financial jargon with play-style features that blend Gen Z culture and sensibilities: “Experts teach how to ‘sweat’ debt at a virtual yoga studio; a lesson on financial risk takes place at a mariachi music plaza; and there's a credit ‘cocina’ (kitchen). The aim is to make financial planning understandable — and doable”, according to NBC News.

The app’s majority-Latina executive team, one of the few in the financial app space (of the 30,000 fintechs, only 0.3 percentare led by Latinas), has an ambitious mission: to help close the Latino wealth gap.

According to Federal Reserve data, average Latino households have only 15% to 20% as much net wealth as non-Latino white households. The median Hispanic household had a net worth of $52,190 in 2020 versus a non-Hispanic household median net worth of $195,600, according to census data. 

The founders of SUMA told the story that the key to saving and building wealth is early financial planning.  According to the CEO and co-founder of SUMA, Beatriz Acevedo, “Finance in general is something that people are kind of afraid of, [they] don’t trust many institutions or brands. And we wanted to just take that fear away”.

A key way to boost wealth building among the nation’s 60 million Latinos, said Acevedo, is through its youth. “They are the ones influencing their older parents and their tíos and tías and abuelas (uncles, aunts and grandmothers), and also their younger family members.”

SUMA’s approach, Acevedo said, is working. According to the company’s data, the site has seen 24% month-over-month growth since May of 2021, and it’s reaching about 5 million people a month through social media. A little more than half of their total audience is between the ages of 18 and 35 — and 75% of its users are female.

“Daniela Corrente recently became SUMA’s chief of strategy and business officer after SUMA merged with her company, Reel, whose model is ‘save now, buy later’. That contrasts with the more common ‘buy now, pay later’ model, which, SUMA's leadership points out, gets more people, especially women, into debt”, according to NBC.

Financial institutions don't know how to properly address younger Latinos and their potential, said Corrente. SUMA research found many young Latino consumers help manage up to three financial accounts belonging to their family members.