Overview

MPOWER Financing (www.mpowerfinancing.com) is a fintech company that provides educational loans to high-promise international students who do not fit the traditional credit criteria of banks or lenders. The company’s mission is to remove financial barriers to higher education in the U.S. by providing the financial resources necessary for these students to attend and complete their undergraduate or graduate education. MPOWER Financing also helps students build their credit histories and provides them with personal finance education to help prepare for life after college. Since 2014, MPOWER Financing has received over $800 million in loan application volume on its platform and has provided financing to students from over 200 countries.

MPOWER Financing works with more than 200 top universities and colleges across the nation ranging from Harvard to New York University to Georgia Tech. For universities looking to increase or maintain international student enrollment, MPOWER Financing offers these prospective and existing international students a means of financing that allows them to start and/or complete their education. Its ‘Global Boost’ program can further increase enrollment of promising students who don’t qualify for traditional loans by allowing universities to enter into an innovative revenue-sharing arrangement.

For investors, MPOWER Financing provides a unique asset class that offers above-market returns at moderate risk levels to a diverse group of equity and debt investors.  Financing the education of high-promise international students represents a growing investment opportunity with a history of minimal defaults. MPOWER Financing employs a rigorous credit model when reviewing applicants, taking into consideration their past, present and future-looking variables including areas of study and salary potential.

The company has developed a proprietary loan origination and servicing platform with enhanced risk management controls powered by proprietary algorithms that help analyze student loan applications and supports the funding process. The flexible technology can accommodate other financial lending products and services and could be licensed to other organizations at a future time.

It has also partnered with leading organizations in the student lending market, such as NelNet, First Marblehead, GS2 and Flywire, for building its loan origination platform, funding facility, servicing platform and payments infrastructure.

As a social benefit corporation, MPOWER Financing’s management team is driven by its desire to create global change by ‘empowering’ international students to turn into global citizens and leaders.

Corporate Highlights

MPOWER Financing serves three distinct audiences: students (primarily international), colleges and universities and investors.

• For international students, MPOWER Financing
  • provides “hard-to-find” gap financing that allows high potential students to continue and complete their college and graduate education
  • facilitates their integration into life after college
  • prepares a sought-after talent pool for America’s leading technology companies
  • provides the professional skills and talent needed in their “home” countries
• For colleges and universities, MPOWER Financing
  • enables them to increase enrollment of full-tuition paying international students
  • helps them build global diversity
• For investors, MPOWER Financing
  • provides an opportunity to invest in a fast-growing market with strong demand
  • boasts an attractive risk reward with an above-average coupon rate
  • creates a moderate credit risk investment with low default rates

Fast Facts:

• Number of international students enrolled in U.S. colleges has increased by nearly 50 percent since 2010 to over one million today.
• International students in the U.S. spent $36 billion on tuition and school-related expenses in 2016; for every seven international students enrolled, they create three U.S. domestic jobs
• Current MPOWER Financing student loan clients are enrolled across 145 top colleges and universities with over 92 percent attending graduate school
• MPOWER Financing has received over $800 million in loan application volume on its platform and has provided financing to students from over 200 countries
• Average size loan is $18,000
• Current investors include Zephyr Management, Goal Structured Solutions, 1776, Village Capital, VARIV, DreamIt, Fresco, Chilango, K Street and University Ventures
• In 2017, named to Technical.ly’s realLIST as one of Washington, D.C.’s 20 most exciting start-ups

Social Media

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MPOWERFinancing
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/mpowerfinancing
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mpower-financing

Management Team

MPOWER Financing has an experienced team with diverse backgrounds in finance, technology and non-profits:

Emmanuel “Manu” Smadja, CEO and co-founder, is an experienced management consultant turned financial technology entrepreneur. Prior to founding MPOWER Financing, he served as engagement manager at McKinsey & Company and in marketing strategy and operations at CapitalOne and Vistaprint. Smadja holds an M.B.A. from INSEAD as well as an M.S. in systems and information engineering and a B.S. in computer science from the University of Virginia.

Michael Davis, CTO and co-founder, is a seasoned technologist specialized in solving big data problems. He is a serial entrepreneur with 13 startups under his belt; predominantly in the financial services and e-commerce sectors. Prior to his entrepreneurial undertakings, he had been a director of web innovation and strategy at Avon and worked at Sapient. Davis holds an M.B.A. from INSEAD and a B.S. in computer engineering from Purdue University.

Lana Bronipolsky, VP of Finance / CFO, enjoys expertise in financial services and non-profits and utilizes both in her work at MPOWER Financing. Previously, she developed new trading models and control processes, managed $6.4b in ETF assets and supervised teams in compliance and support at ProShares Group in Bethesda, Maryland and PIMCO in Newport Beach, Calif. Bronipolsky holds an MBA from the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland and a B.S. in economics and a B.A. in international affairs from the George Washington University.

Bob Armour, VP of Operations, started his career in consulting with McKinsey & Co. and Cambridge Technology Partners before moving into operations and IT leadership roles at Cognizant, PTC, and Capital One. While serving as COO/CIO of Capital One’s Healthcare Finance business the team doubled loan volume to $1 billion in 2 years. Armour earned an M.B.A. and a B.S. in Systems Engineering both from the University of Virginia. Always passionate about education, Armour recently served on his local school committee and as STEM Outreach Co-chair for Boston SIM.

Lutz Braum, VP of Marketing & Business Development has over 25 years of experience in marketing financial services, with deep expertise in digital marketing, consumer engagement, and product development. Before joining MPOWER he was the CMO of Higher One, a FinTech company that was the country’s largest digital-only banking provider with over 2 million accounts. Previous roles include CMO at an e-retailer, Head of Consumer Marketing at PayPal, and various senior marketing roles at Wells Fargo Bank, Washington Mutual and Citibank, both domestic and internationally. Braum is fluent in German and French and holds a BS in Finance from Arizona State University and an M.B.A from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

Terence Chu, General Counsel, has represented financial institutions for over 25 years, both in private practice and in-house. Chu has extensive experience in banking, regulatory, real estate, commercial and consumer law. His clients have included HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Capital One. He received his J.D. from the Temple University School of Law and a B.A. in political science from the University of Pennsylvania.  A former entrepreneur, Chu relishes the unique business and legal challenges associated with representing startup companies.