A McLean company that bills itself as the issuer of "America's first credit card built by conservatives for conservatives" has pulled in $14.8 million from investors and is now more than halfway toward its fundraising goal of $20 million.
Zing America Inc. began taking minimum investments of at least $25,000 for the funding round on April 4 and had 13 investors as of April 16, according to a document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. SEC documents show $13.7 million has been raised, but the company tells me it has raised the higher figure.
CEO Robert W. Collins, a former Republican strategist, is the noted signatory on the document and Christian Bergmann, a longtime financial services industry executive, is listed as Zing's chief financial officer.
Zing's credit card, branded as Coign, was launched in 2022, with backing from MRV Banks, a $733 million-asset community bank based in Sainte Genevieve, Missouri.
The company did not say what it intends to do with the new funds, though it seems a good chunk would go toward marketing.A Coign spokesperson gave me the updated fundraising amount but has not yet responded to a request for more information.
According to Coign's website, the Visa credit card is for those who want "to advance conservative values and embrace the American spirit."
In addition to the 1% cash-back benefit awarded to members for every purchase, an undisclosed portion of all swipe fees gets collected to support "conservative causes" from registered 501(c)(3) charities. Coign cardholders are able to vote each quarter on the charities that will share the donation, which in the first quarter of this year totaled $63,702 per a post on social media.
Zing has not disclosed its number of cardholders.
"It's ridiculous that trillions of dollars of conservative commerce funds billions of dollars of contributions to liberal, woke, progressive causes that are not an expression of where conservatives are and that work against us," Collins said during a May 5, 2022, interview on the "Fox and Friends" television show on Fox News. "The response has been awesome."
Prior to launching Coign, Collins worked as a Republican Party strategist for nearly two decades, the longest stint of which included serving as the chief of staff to former Virginia Rep. and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor for seven years. Bergmann had previously been a managing partner at San Francisco-based financial services firm Burnham Hill LLP and at London-based M&A firm Alegro Capital.
