PayJoy, a U.S.-based fintech startup, announced on Wednesday the global availability of its Lock API. PayJoy reported that the API allows PayJoy’s lending partners to secure financing with compatible smartphones.
As previously reported, PayJoy reported it has helped tens of thousands of underbanked consumers in emerging markets, across the U.S., Latin America, Southeast Asia, Africa, and India. The company’s patented, pay-as-you-go financing system helps consumers with not only mobile device financing, but also unsecured lending, by using a customer’s phone for underwriting data and as collateral. The company recently secured $20 million in debt-financing from Arc Labs, a venture partner to innovative companies serving the underbanked.
“PayJoy’s mission is to create products to help unlock consumer financing for the next four billion. Our unique technology and underwriting enables people who lack credit to gain access to smartphone financing.”
PayJoy has deployed over the past three years the lock technology successfully with tier one partners in the following markets:
- Tanzania
- Zambia
- Kenya
- Mexico
- Honduras
- Argentina
- Indonesia
- Guatemala
- India
- Nigeria
- Panama
While sharing more details about the Lock API’s expansion, Mark Heynen, Co-founder and Chief Business Officer at PayJoy, stated:
“The fundamental challenge in extending credit in emerging markets — whether for a loan or a phone — is the lack of collateral and underwriting data. By introducing a way for consumers to pledge their smartphone as collateral virtually, we give finance companies a tool to approve a lot more people with the comfort that it has a proven history of cutting defaults in half. With affordability being top of mind, we created a technology that empowers lenders to better leverage pay-as-you-go smartphone loans with fewer defaults.”