Beast Industries, the company founded by popular internet personality and entrepreneur MrBeast, has purchased Step, a fintech company and smartphone app that is supported by Evolve Bank & Trust of West Memphis.
Step offers banking services such as direct deposit, savings and credit. The platform, which is marketed toward young adults and teens, has garnered investments from celebrities, including basketball player Steph Curry, actor Will Smith, singer Justin Timberlake and others.
The company’s banking services are provided by Evolve, which offers banking-as-a-service to many fintech companies and apps. Evolve will hold each Step user’s first $250,000 in deposits and will deposit the remainder in one or more partner banks.
Step users’ deposits are insured by the FDIC up to $250,000. Deposits of users who qualify for Step Black, the fintech’s rewards card, are insured up to $1 million.
Evolve previously partnered with Synapse Financial Technologies Inc. of California, which collapsed and filed for bankruptcy in 2024. Evolve has been involved in litigation with Synapse over responsibility for consumers’ deposits.
The bank has faced other setbacks in recent years, including a data breach, a Federal Reserve sanction and the arrest of its CEO.
Evolve has about $1.3 billion in assets.
Beast Industries was founded by Jimmy Donaldson, also known as MrBeast, who gained popularity creating YouTube videos. He has more than 450 million YouTube subscribers and more than 5 billion monthly views on the site. Forbes has estimated Donaldson’s net worth at $2.6 billion.
Sign up for Daily E-news
