Episode 70: Wole Coaxum, Founder and CEO of MoCaFi | The Challenger Bank Serving the Unbanked and Underbanked

New York Launch Pod: A Podcast Highlighting New Start-Ups, Businesses, and Openings in the New York City Area (NY Launch Pod)

Wole Coaxum, founder of MoCaFi, steps onto the New York Launch Pod to discuss his challenger bank and project management company dedicated to serving the unbanked and underbanked and providing essential financial services in marginalized communities.

As former managing director at JPMorgan and head of business banking sales at Chase, Wole recognized that many people were using payday lenders and check cashers instead of traditional banks, either because banks did not have branches in these communities or because their fee models were not structured in favor of these clients. As a result, whether through payday lenders or traditional banks, these communities were paying a higher price to use necessary financial services and Wole set out to change that. MoCaFi is an online banking platform which provides a range of financial services to poorer communities that larger banks have neglected to serve by offering financial literacy education, credit building through rent and utility payments, and low fees and interest rates on small loans. In the future Wole hopes to reduce the wealth gap in these communities by bringing them into the traditional banking sector while providing efficient, low cost financial services.

In this episode we talk about the gaps in traditional banking services, the importance of banking to lifetime financial well being and how MoCaFi is solving these issues through a wide range of innovative technologies and services!

At 2:52 we discuss the hole in the market that brick and mortar banks are not filling

At 6:01 we talk about the longterm financial effects of being unbanked or underbanked

At 9:48 Wole discusses how MoCaFi is solving the high-fee, high-cost business model of traditional banks and how the environment and rituals of a community keep people from participating in the traditional financial sector

At 15:28 Wole describes how MoCaFi is approaching customer acquisition through the power of social media and celebrity

And at 27:00 Wole talks about MoCaFi’s sustainable business model and the difference between traditional banks and challenger banks and what that means in the context of the United State’s regulatory framework.

Transcript of this episode available at: nylaun.ch/mocafitr

For more on MoCaFi visit: mocafi.com