San Francisco-based PayJoy, a Public Benefit Corporation, is scaling access to smartphones and credit for underserved populations across Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia. The company’s $250 million PayJoy Asset Fund has drawn a new commitment from T. Rowe Price, joining a growing cohort of institutional investors backing tech-enabled financial inclusion in the Global South.
The PayJoy Asset Fund allows investors to co-invest in smartphone loans originated by PayJoy, which serves more than 15 million customers – half of whom are new to credit, and one in three accessing a smartphone for the first time. The fund is structured to grow to $1 billion in step with PayJoy’s expanding portfolio.
Digital inclusion
Roughly 2.6 billion people remain offline, with the digital gap disproportionately concentrated in low- and middle-income countries. Smartphones can be a lifeline in these regions as they unlock access to employment, banking, public services and digital commerce. Nearly half of PayJoy’s users are women, many using the devices to support gig work and household income.
“This investment in the PayJoy Asset Fund will put us in a better position to expand credit to more customers across the Global South that will enhance people’s lives.” Said PayJoy’s Bill Yialamas.
Independent research from UC Berkeley and Washington University in St. Louis found PayJoy’s pay-as-you-go model boosts household income by 6% on average. The model uses lockout technology to manage risk and reach borrowers overlooked by traditional finance.“The mobile phone is essentially an entry ticket into our increasingly connected world,” said Samy Muaddi of T. Rowe Price. “We believe PayJoy is a tech-enabled, data-driven innovation that can fuel sustainable and responsible economic growth.”
