Grow Credit Inc.

My entrepreneurial journey started 20 years ago in 2004, following an injury that ended my dream of representing Cameroon in the 100m at the 2004 Olympics. The disappointment was short-lived thanks to a serendipitous encounter on the train ride back to my club team, leading me to be introduced to Sébastien Deguy, CEO and founder at Allegoritmic, later acquired by Adobe and rebranded Adobe Substance 3D. I will forever be grateful for Sebastien, who took a leap of faith and offered me my first job, putting me in charge of opening Allegoritmic's US office and leading business development efforts, and for still supporting me to this day as a Grow Credit investor. I shared our tumultuous and tortuous journey on the popular Dealmakers Podcast, filled with dramatic and unusual pivots. I included origin stories, such as being introduced to chess at a tender age, and shared tips on embracing stress as a catalyst for creativity and personal growth. Our imagination is truly the only limit. Thank you, Alejandro Cremades, for the opportunity to share my journey.

We're excited to announce the arrival of Capital One Alumni, Former Green Dot Corporation, and Fastpay General Manager Secil Baysal as our new Board Member. Secil deeply cares about underserved communities, making him an ideal fit to join our ranks. His new-to-credit and thin-file experience at Capital One and Green Dot and his role as GM of B2B platform FastPay, an AvidXchange Company, will be leveraged to accelerate our fast-growing Grow API business. Press Announcement: https://lnkd.in/gxSxst9S

We are glad to participate with neon money club's 'Score', The dating app for people with good credit, by providing an outlet for turndown applicants with scores below 675 who cannot access the app. Our focus on turndowns is helping in a myriad of ways. Happy Valentine's Day ❤️

Here's a culture matrix, you may find helpful, which is contributing to helping our team seamlessly ride the endless ups and downs of the startup-building journey inspired by the following reads: 👉 Antifragile: https://lnkd.in/gfaMq6wT 👉 Essentialism: https://lnkd.in/gdtBGyAt 👉 Extreme Ownership: https://lnkd.in/ghHqUXG7 👉 The Obstacle is the way: https://lnkd.in/gjP5fU5d https://lnkd.in/gyrA9qwr

Excited and thankful to announce that Wells Fargo elected to support expanding our financial inclusion initiative by deploying depository and treasury services across operations, from collection and disbursement accounts to fund transfers. The Grow API is growing in popularity, illustrated by the recent integration announcement with 2M users strong Beem and other fast-rising startups, including leading debit card for gamers Ugami, Inc., and AI credit care app Dovly. In a crowded market environment, the only way to differentiate ourselves is by being so good we can't be ignored. Our fantastic team has demonstrated just that by working incredibly hard to launch a robust and scalable platform. Team Grow, great work! Mark Mazur Payam Manavi Jeffrey B. Anderson, CRCM Vincent Gomez, CPA Brinda Patel Matthew Jensen Michelle Iiams Nancy Rivera Nimra Tassawar Steve Roth Alexander Niel-Orosco Kevin Lou Mike DeLaet Brian Hughes Todd Buterbaugh Francisco (Paco) Rivera Derek Ryan George Nathan McKinley Dan Holt Jason Robins Jason Gardner Dan Rosen Ysbrant Marcelis Vivek Krishnamurthy Jason P. Bliss Sean Clark David Galvan Irfan Virk Riz Virk Omar Soliman Sébastien Deguy USAA Erik Rannala William Hsu Florida Funders Ryan Whittemore Press Announcement: https://lnkd.in/gpQUXf2h

We are thrilled to integrate with the 2 million-user-strong Beem app led by founder Akshay K to help consumers tackle inflation with better credit scores with Grow Credit Inc. Similar to leading debit card for Gamers Ugami's integration, Beem plans to release a credit card product in 2024 with the Grow API easing Beem's credit card graduation process. We also plan on leveraging Beem's AI/ML-powered risk management tools to generate transaction savings that will be passed on to customers through our free membership program. More major announcements are in the works as financial institutions, Insurance carriers, Fintechs, and subcription businesses rapidly embrace Grow API's innovative payment, retention, and turndown solutions. Press Link: https://lnkd.in/gwPiQA7A

We are excited to partner with Hector Hulian and Ugami, Inc., the leading debit card for gamers, who plans to release a credit card to a waitlist of 265,000 gamers in 2024. Ugami's "Grow-to-GO" API integration will allow them to confidently and seamlessly graduate their users to their upcoming credit card product through a platform enabling consumers to build credit without incurring more debt while providing continuous credit education promoting responsible borrowing. We are poised to make several major announcements throughout 2024 as more Financial institutions, Insurance carriers, Fintechs, and Subcription Businesses are rapidly embracing Grow API's innovative payment, retention, and turndown solutions. Press: https://lnkd.in/gxXUy979

We are thrilled to partner with Nirit Rubenstein and the Dovly team, a top credit-builder app with 18,000 reviews and a 4.8/5 rating committed to helping consumers in need of credit score relief. The partnership will enable Dovly users to report a positive tradeline on all three credit bureaus by making monthly Dovly subcription payments with "Pay with Grow." We are poised to announce additional major partnerships over the coming weeks as more Fintechs, financial institutions, insurance, and subcription companies embrace Grow's innovative payment, retention, and turndown solutions. Press: https://lnkd.in/gAzPje4p

Culture is one of our largest investments at Grow and Commerce Ventures has played a critical role in supercharging that effort by pairing us with remarkable advisors, including Daniel Eckert, Brian Hughes, and Sudeep Arora. We hope you will enjoy the following podcast, where we discuss how our culture-centric approach is helping us attract talents, maintain team unity, and more. https://lnkd.in/gANKwdjv

Following the recent launch of the innovative Grow-to-Go and groundbreaking Pay-with-Grow solutions, we're proud to announce the Grow API suite's third product, Grow Publishers (https://lnkd.in/gd_Fx2Zx). Grow Publishers enables any website to monetize its traffic and enhance customer loyalty by integrating the Grow Publisher Widget, which requires minimal technical skills. We're able to launch new products at a frantic pace thanks to our investor and technology partner, NorthBay Solutions. We are incredibly fortunate to have enjoyed an over-decade-long partnership, with Northbay pairing us with incredibly talented and dedicated engineers over the years. Irfan Virk Riz Virk John Flavin, thank you for your support, friendship, and belief in Grow. Laxmikant Malladi Shoaib Malik Tayyab Mehmood Kaleem Haqqi Nabeel Salman and the rest of the Northbay team, thank you for your consistent, reliable, and relentless execution. https://lnkd.in/gM5HTCTD