payjoy

How PayJoy built a $300M business by letting the underserved use their smartphones as collateral for loansLerato Motloung is a mother of two who works in a supermarket in Johannesburg, South Africa. Then, in February 2024, she saw a sign about PayJoy, a startup that offers lending to the underserved in emerging markets. Motloung is one of millions of customers that San Francisco–based PayJoy has helped since its 2015 inception. And, unlike other startups offering loans to the underserved, it’s doing so in a way that’s not predatory, it says. Last September, PayJoy announced that it had secured $150 million in Series C equity funding and $210 million in debt financing.