PayJoy

PayJoy was founded in San Francisco in 2015 by Doug Ricket, who has said the idea grew out of his experience as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in West Africa, his engineering work at Google (digital mapping), and his time at solar pay-as-you-go company d.light Design, all of which exposed him to the problem of underserved populations lacking access to formal credit and technology. Co-founder Gib Lopez, who had a background in strategy consulting and international development work at TechnoServe and Dalberg Global Development Advisors, joined as COO. The company's core insight was that a smartphone itself — an asset increasingly essential to economic participation but often unaffordable to buy outright in emerging markets — could serve as loan collateral via device-locking software, allowing PayJoy to extend interest-free, fee-transparent installment credit to people with no formal credit history or bank account, and to use repayment behavior to build a credit profile for them.

PayJoy raised roughly $4.3 million in seed equity and debt within its first year (2015) and grew initially through partnerships with phone retailers across Latin America and other emerging markets. Over time it added India, the Philippines, Indonesia, and African markets (including South Africa) to its footprint. Financially, the company scaled from about $10 million in annualized revenue in 2020 to over $300 million in annualized revenue by Q4 2023, reaching profitability along the way and growing at over 35% year over year as of 2024, according to a TechCrunch profile. Total credit disbursed crossed $2 billion by early 2024, $3 billion by its 10th anniversary (June 2025), and roughly $3.5 billion by mid-2026, while its customer base grew from roughly 10 million (Feb 2024) to 15 million (June 2025) to more than 20 million by May 2026.

On the capital side, PayJoy has relied heavily on a mix of venture equity and (increasingly) large corporate debt facilities to fund its loan book — a structure typical of consumer lending fintechs. Its most publicly documented equity round is a September 2023 raise combining $150 million in Series C equity (led by Warburg Pincus, with Invus, Citi Ventures, Union Square Ventures, and prior investor Greylock participating) alongside a $210 million debt facility, bringing lifetime funding at that point to over $400 million in combined debt and equity. Prior to that, Greylock backed PayJoy's Series B (Greylock partner Josh McFarland, who joined Greylock in 2017 after founding TellApart, sits on PayJoy's board alongside John Buttrick of Union Square Ventures and Todd Schell of Warburg Pincus). PayJoy has continued to raise substantial debt capital from institutional lenders, including a long-running relationship with Neuberger Berman (begun 2022) that expanded via a $140 million corporate debt facility announced in February 2026, plus a partnership with Citi. In July 2025, PayJoy launched the 'PayJoy Asset Fund,' a vehicle allowing institutional investors — including a new commitment from T. Rowe Price — to co-invest directly alongside PayJoy in its originated smartphone and credit loans, with an initial target of $250 million growing toward $1 billion; Crunchbase/PitchBook data put PayJoy's aggregate lifetime funding (debt plus equity, across roughly 12 rounds and 46 investors) at approximately $592 million as of mid-2026.

Business model

Point-of-sale smartphone financing and a general-purpose secured/revolving credit card (PayJoy Card), distributed through retail and device-manufacturer partnerships across emerging markets; uses device-lock collateral technology and proprietary ML underwriting rather than traditional credit bureau data.

Markup/interest embedded in installment smartphone financing and interest on the PayJoy Card credit line; company discloses full costs upfront and states no accruing interest, late fees, or debt traps on device financing. Funds originated loans with a mix of equity, corporate debt facilities, and (since 2025) third-party co-investment via the PayJoy Asset Fund.