Good morning,
When Abbey Wemimo immigrated to the U.S. from Lagos, Nigeria, to attend college, he and his mother tried to take out a loan to help pay his tuition. Like 45 million Americans, they lacked a credit score--so they were turned away, and had to borrow money from a payday lender at an exorbitant interest rate.
That experience inspired Wemimo and his co-founder, Samir Goel, also a child of immigrants, to start Esusu, a fintech company that helps low- to moderate-income renters use their rent payments to build credit. “The average debt for individuals with credit scores is $92,000. If you multiply that by 45 million, that's over $4.1 trillion,” Wemimo tells Inc. “If those 45 million people who would otherwise go to payday lenders actually could get the average debt, we could unlock a lot of opportunities for people,” he adds. “It would not only be good for them, it would be good for the American economy.”
Esusu has raised more than $14 million, including a $10 million Series A round in July that included Serena Williams' investment firm. But raising money as a Black founder hasn’t been easy. Read our story to learn how Wemimo persevered despite investor bias, and why this past year has made his company’s mission feel even more urgent. |
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