EMEnRose Magazine

SWARM, one of the country's largest live event agencies, hosted 120,000 Miami race fans in Wynwood at the remarkable May debut of its Racing Fan Fest.

For the 2023 event and beyond, SWARM plans to hit another gear by bringing Win-Win Partnerships along for the ride.

SWARM has retained Miami-based Win-Win to help elevate the sponsorship, brand and marketing opportunities afforded by what already is South Florida's most popular F1 fan event.

Per CEO Javi Zayas, "Headlined by Us Weekly, Racing Fan Fest kicked off Formula 1's debut in Miami by hosting more than 120,000 racing fans over the course of four days in Wynwood. Racing Fan Fest Miami 2023 will activate next year and host numerous brands, celebrities and entertainers. Our live concert series, previously featuring ACRAZE and Alesso, will continue to close out the weekend. Growth requires adding best-in-class strategic capabilities, and we struck gold in our alliance with Win-Win."

In addition to elevating its Miami event, Racing Fan Fest also plans a 2023 expansion to Austin and Las Vegas, providing marketers a turnkey activation platform in all three US Formula 1 race markets. 

"We couldn't be more flattered to partner with the SWARM team," said Win-Win Partnerships Founder Scott Becher. "F1 fandom is exploding in the U.S. and brands are looking for that elusive marketing recipe of driving revenue, brand impact and unique hospitality. Racing Fan Fest delivers a best-in-class activation experience and we're thrilled to help partners own a piece of the F1 race weekend."

About Racing Fan Fest

The inaugural Racing Fan Fest was presented in collaboration with lifestyle magazine Us Weekly. Lead racing partners included 5-time world champion Oracle Red Bull Racing and the Scuderia AlphaTauri race team. Cutting-edge entertainment and culinary concepts included The Red Bull Fan Zone, Official Formula 1 Merch Store, international performances by world class DJs, a nightclub partnership with E1lEVEN Vodka and AT+T VR Racing Simulators Activation.

For more visit www.racingfanfest.com or follow us on Instagram at @racingfanfest. 

About SWARM

SWARM is a holding of Hive Entertainment Group, a 360 full-service event, marketing, promotion and production company based in Florida with offices nationally. SWARM continues to inspire state-of-the-art experiences, expanding the landscape of the special event industry. For more visit www.swarminc.com or follow us on Instagram at @swarm.

About Win-Win Partnerships

Win-Win Partnerships specializes in data-driven, innovative partnership strategies for brands and marketers. A focus for Win-Win is integrated sponsorships and licensing solutions via entertainment, sports, and celebrity influencers. Founder Scott Becher most recently served as Vice President of Partnerships for Doral-based Carnival Cruise Line, and previously was a co-founder of Miami's sports talk radio station 790 The Ticket. Becher's experience also includes the National Football League and Zimmerman Advertising.  For more information, please visit www.choosewinwin.com.

Budge Logo

Budge, the paycheck management application empowering HR departments to help employees achieve their most critical financial goals by streamlining pre-determined employer or employee contributions directly to debt and savings goals, announces today its seed round investment of $1.75 million from a roster of wealth management and fintech legends:

• Steve Lockshin, Founder of Vanilla
• Bruce Carnegie Brown, Chairman at Lloyd's of London
• Eric Clarke, Founder and CEO of Orion
• Brett Danko, President at Financial Planning Resource Center
• Michael Giles, Founder and CEO Embed, previously CEO of Cash App Investing
• Salman Syed, COO of Fidel API, previously GM of Marqeta

Founded in 2021 by 20-year wealth management veteran CEO Hussain Zaidi, who also co-founded Advizr, an innovative financial planning platform acquired by Orion in 2019, Budge intends to close the advice and service gap between the paycheck management needs of everyday Americans, and the asset management focus of the financial services industry.

"The reality is, the concept of real 'financial advice' is still reserved for households with an attractive level of investable assets," said Zaidi. "These households have access to endless service models, including RIAs, private banks, family offices and more, because it's the entire 'asset management' industry's goal to support them. Unfortunately, 70% of the country has little to no investable assets."

This vast majority, Zaidi explained, is worried about covering unexpected expenses and managing crushing credit card and student loan debt. For these clients, Zaidi, who spent 12 years as a financial planner and CFP, provided guidance about moving paycheck dollars to debt and savings accounts, directly from their paycheck.

"Most didn't need asset management. They needed paycheck management," he said. "Especially with the student loan pause coming to an end this December, which is going to affect millions of Americans who will have to resume their payments, Budge is perfectly positioned to arm employers with multiple strategies to help ease employees into their payment again."

Budge not only offers a way for employees to 'set and forget' contributions to emergency savings and debt goals, but it also provides a powerful recruitment and retention benefit to Human Resources Departments dealing with the effects of the ongoing Great Resignation.

Using Budge, which works seamlessly with the leading payroll programs, HR leaders can choose to allocate monetary contributions like sign-on bonuses, performance incentives, raises, and more to employee-chosen financial goals (tax free up to $5,250 per employee if directed to their student loan). Budge also empowers employees to direct a portion of their paycheck to the debt and savings goals they choose, much in the same way they can contribute to 401K or 403(b) retirement programs.

Budge is led by Zaidi and Yan Avery, Chief Technology Officer, who spent nearly three decades building innovative and highly scalable solutions for fast-growing tech companies. Most recently, Avery led Montreal-based fintech Expertus Technologies, building its serverless wires and payments offering. He was a critical part of the M&A team that managed their acquisition by IBM in late 2020.

To learn more about Budge, visit budge.app or subscribe to the Budge Brief, a biweekly newsletter published on LinkedIn and via email. 

About Budge

Budge, the premier paycheck management application empowering HR Departments to automatically direct employer and employee contributions to employees' most pressing financial goals, was founded in 2021 by financial services veteran and fintech entrepreneur, Hussain Zaidi. Through an integration with leading payroll platforms, Budge enables employees to 'set and forget' contributions to emergency savings and credit card and student loan debt, helping them achieve financial security while giving HR leaders the advantage of a powerful recruitment and retention benefit.