Prime Highlights:
- MrBeast’s company, Beast Industries, acquires Step, a financial app focused on teens and young adults.
- The move expands MrBeast’s brand beyond media and consumer products into financial services.
Key Facts:
- Step, founded in 2018, provides tools for saving, spending, sending money, investing, and building credit, with no monthly fees.
- The app partners with Evolve Bank & Trust and has over 7 million users, supported by major investors like Stripe and venture capital firms.
Background:
Jimmy Donaldson, also called MrBeast, the YouTuber with the most subscribers in the world, is moving into financial services. His company, Beast Industries, has bought Step, an app that helps young people manage money and learn about finances.
Step, started in 2018 by CJ MacDonald and Alexey Kalinichenko, provides tools for saving, spending, sending money, investing, and building credit, all without monthly fees. The app currently serves over 7 million users and has backing from Stripe as well as venture capital firms including Coatue, Collaborative Fund, Crosslink Capital, and General Catalyst.
In a statement to fans, MrBeast highlighted his motivation for the acquisition: “Nobody taught me about investing, building credit, or managing money when I was growing up. That’s exactly why we’re joining forces with Step.”
Beast Industries emphasized that Step’s technology platform, in-house fintech team, and user base will complement its existing ventures, including Feastables (a snack brand), Beast Philanthropy, and Beast Games, a reality competition series on Amazon Prime Video. Jeff Housenbold, CEO of Beast Industries, noted, “This acquisition positions us to meet our audiences where they are, with practical, technology-driven solutions that can transform their financial futures for the better.”
The acquisition also follows a year of fundraising for Beast Industries, including a $200 million investment from Bitmine Immersion Technologies, one of the largest holders of the cryptocurrency Ether.
With this move, MrBeast is not only expanding his business portfolio but also leveraging his massive digital audience, over 450 million subscribers and 5 billion monthly views across channels, to deliver practical tools that could shape the financial knowledge of a new generation.