PayJoy has footprints in emerging markets across the globe

20M+
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20M+
3 continents


As the global middle class goes mobile, we saw an opportunity to rewrite the rules of finance for a new generation. We serve our customers even without bank statements or credit history.
Our Impact
As a Public Benefit Corporation dedicated to ethical lending, PayJoy ensures a positive impact on our customer’s financial well being.
79%
50%
47%
31%
Financial Access in 9 Countries
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The Minds Behind the System.


Doug Ricket
Doug Ricket founded PayJoy in 2015 to make technology and financial services affordable in emerging markets. Doug was inspired by his time as a Peace Corps volunteer teacher in West Africa, his work building the first global digital map at Google Maps, and his patented inventions that launched the pay-as-you-go solar industry. Doug holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in computer engineering from MIT with concentration in AI. He also holds an MBA from Stanford, where he guest lectures in the big data and machine learning course.


Nick Zakrasek
Nick Talwar is the founder and Managing Partner of Rohati Capital, a global venture capital platform he established in 2024 with former Amazon colleagues to give individual investors access to top-tier venture capital opportunities. Rohati, which means "to ascend" in Sanskrit, reflects the firm's mission to deliver superior investment results while unlocking human potential around the world. The firm invests predominantly in the U.S., with an additional focus where the team at Rohati believes talent is paired with opportunity, in particular India, as well as exposure to Brazil and the Israeli and Chinese diasporas.
An investor and operator, Nick has spent his career building and scaling fintech, mobility, and marketplace businesses at some of the world's leading technology companies. Prior to founding Rohati, he led Visa's North American credit card business and launched and scaled Amazon Lending, Amazon's embedded lending arm, into a profitable business generating more than $1 billion in assets and more than $100 million in profit globally. He also ran vehicle supply and financing for Uber worldwide and served as President and Chief Executive Officer of CircleUp.
He is an active board member and advisor, with board service at PayJoy, Rapido, Shipper, and the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, his alma mater, and he sits on the International Selection Committee of Endeavor. He was selected as a Young Global Leader at the World Economic Forum and a Finance Leaders Fellow at the Aspen Institute. Nick holds degrees from Georgetown and Wharton and lives in the Bay Area with his family.
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Amy Pardee
As PayJoy’s General Counsel, Amy Pardee is responsible for leading the company’s global Legal and Compliance functions. She brings over 15 years of deep legal experience to the team, including serving as General Counsel of Narmi, a digital banking platform. Prior to Narmi, Amy led the international legal team at Square (now Block). She holds B.A.s in Economics and Political Science from Stanford University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.


Bill Yialamas
Bill is PayJoy's Chief Financial Officer. He is responsible for all of PayJoy's financial teams and functions. Bill brings over 25 years of financial and operating experience to PayJoy. Prior to PayJoy, Bill was Chief Financial Officer and Co-President of Reach Financial, where he started as its first employee and helped to grow the company to over $1 billion in consumer loan originations. Prior to Reach, Bill held senior roles at investment banks where he specialized in coverage of specialty finance companies and banks. Bill obtained his B.A. in Economics from Columbia University.
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Brad Pennington
Brad is PayJoy’s President of Financial Products. He currently runs Risk, Data Science, Fraud and Asset Valuation. Prior to joining PayJoy, Brad held a number of leadership and quantitative roles including CRO and Head of Data at Prosper Marketplace and Global Risk Management consultant at Moody’s Analytics. He has a passion for building teams and products that improve the financial lives of users at massive scale. Brad obtained his B.S. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania along with degrees in Mathematics and Economics.
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Gib Lopez
Gib Lopez co-founded PayJoy and serves as COO supporting global operations. Gib began his career in strategy consulting before shifting his focus to underserved communities and global development, working with TechnoServe, the Camber Collective, and Dalberg Global Development Advisors. Over this time, Gib worked with governments, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and for profit enterprises across the US, Central America, Africa, Europe, and Asia. He holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and bachelor's degrees in Finance and Spanish from the University of Washington.


Lucia Villar
Lucia Villar is a seasoned leader in financial services and fintech, with deep expertise in financial inclusion and consumer credit. Prior to joining PayJoy, she served as General Manager of Alternative Lending at JP Morgan Chase. Before her time at Chase, Lucia led investments in education and small-dollar credit at Community Investment Management (CIM) and the personal loans division at Earnest (acq. NAVI). She began her career in microfinance, working with ACCION International and Citi Foundation. Lucia holds a B.A. from Tufts University and an MBA from Columbia Business School.


Iván Canales
Iván Canales is PayJoy’s Chief Revenue Officer, leading revenue growth, country management, and marketing strategy across PayJoy's global footprint in Latin America, Asia, and Africa. He brings a strong track record of building and scaling financial platforms in high-growth markets. Prior to PayJoy, Iván served as Country Manager of Nubank Mexico, where he launched the company’s first products and scaled the business to more than 12 million customers, establishing it as one of the country’s leading financial institutions. Earlier in his career, he held leadership roles at BlackRock, Amazon Web Services, Credit Suisse, and Merrill Lynch. He holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Cornell University.
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Bharath Ramarathinam
Bharath is PayJoy’s Chief Technology Officer. He is responsible for leading all of PayJoy’s technology, engineering, and product platforms. Bharath brings over 22 years of technical leadership, architecture, and engineering experience to PayJoy.
Prior to PayJoy, Bharath was Global Head of Engineering for Square Banking at Block, Inc., where he scaled and managed Square’s banking platform, delivering over $650 million in gross profit. Before Block, he served as Head of Engineering for Intuit’s lending and money movement platforms. During COVID, he led the launch of the Government’s Paycheck Protection Program at Intuit, delivering over $1.4 billion in funds to more than 34,000 small businesses within two weeks of launch.
Bharath holds a Master’s degree in computer science from University of Kentucky.
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Maryann Kongovi
Maryann Kongovi is PayJoy’s SVP of People. Before joining PayJoy, Maryann spent a decade scaling global teams at venture-backed startups, following a successful tenure building and leading sales teams at Google. Maryann holds an MA from Oxford University, and an MBA from Columbia University.
Board of Directors
Our board brings together the world's leading venture capital firms and independent experts to ensure PayJoy remains a stable, ethical, and high-growth institution.
Doug Ricket
Doug Ricket
Doug Ricket founded PayJoy in 2015 to make technology and financial services affordable in emerging markets. Doug was inspired by his time as a Peace Corps volunteer teacher in West Africa, his work building the first global digital map at Google Maps, and his patented inventions that launched the pay-as-you-go solar industry. Doug holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in computer engineering from MIT with concentration in AI. He also holds an MBA from Stanford, where he guest lectures in the big data and machine learning course.
John Buttrick
John Buttrick
John is a partner at Union Square Ventures, joining the firm in 2010. He began his career in 1985 as a corporate lawyer at Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York and Paris. He was a partner in the firm’s mergers and acquisitions group from 1994-2000. From 2000-2004, John was a partner at LiveWire, a private equity group that acquired and managed back-office software companies. Between 2004 and 2010, he was involved in a number of start-up ventures in the US and Europe as an investor, director, and consultant. He currently serves as Board Chair of Environmental Advocates of New York. John majored in American Studies at Northwestern University and has a JD degree from Villanova University School of Law. John has lived in New York City for most of his life.
Josh McFarland
Josh McFarland
Josh McFarland is an experienced product leader and entrepreneur who specializes in designing, building and scaling technology driven businesses. Josh joined Greylock as a partner in 2017. Previously, Josh was the founder and CEO of TellApart, which was acquired by Twitter for more than $500M in 2015. At Twitter, Josh was VP of Product for all revenue generating lines of business including advertising, data services and customer support applications. Previously in his career, Josh was a lead Product Manager at Google where he cofounded the Adwords API team. Josh earned his Bachelor’s degree with distinction in Economics at Stanford, where he was a Mayfield Fellow.
Todd Schell
Todd Schell
Todd Schell is based in New York, joined Warburg Pincus in 2011 and focuses on Financial Services investments. Prior to joining Warburg Pincus, Mr. Schell covered Financial Institutions in the Investment Banking Division at Barclays Capital. He holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a B.A. from Amherst College.
Board Advisors
Arjan Schütte
Arjan Schütte
Arjan Schütte is the founder and a managing partner of Core Innovation Capital, a leading venture capital fund investing in financial services companies that empower everyday Americans. His investments include Oportun, Ripple, CoverHound, and TIO Networks.
Nick Talwar
Nick Talwar
Nick has spent much of his career at the intersection of fast-scaling technology platforms and consumer / SME Financial Services, having launched and scaled some transformative customer propositions globally. Prior to joining Apis, Nick was Global Head of Vehicle Financing at Uber, where he was responsible for the Group’s vehicle leasing, rentals and fleet management division. Prior to that, he served as General Manager of Amazon Lending and also led Visa's credit card business in North America.
Alejandra Martinez S
Alejandra Martinez S
Alejandra is passionate about developing high performing teams and supporting women in their professional careers. She has been an Independent Board Member for leading entities in the Mexican financial sector for more than a decade being Chairwoman of the Board, Chair of various Risk Committees and Cybersecurity Committee and member of the Audit and Compensation Committees. Companies include the retail and commercial Credit Bureaus, electronic switch E-Global, Bancoppel consumer and SME bank, Nafinsa development bank and SICREA autofinance Company as well as Fair,Isaac & Co (FICO). She has recently joined PayJoy´s Board and its Compliance Committee as an Independent Member as well as the Regional Advisory Board for Banorte. She has participated to date in 11 BOD sitting currently at 5. In 2000 she founded Analyse to serve analytics needs of Banks and non-banks for international and national clients alike. Previously she held various positions in the international, corporate and commercial divisions of the major banks in the country being the CRO for Bancomer´s (now BBVA) retail bank, and Corporate division VP in Banamex´ (now Citibank) and its NY agency. Alejandra holds an MBA from Stanford University in California and a BS in Industrial Engineering, from Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City. She is a member of EY Center for Board Matters, The 30% Club and Women Corporate Directors (WCD) Mexico chapters and MBA Mujeres de México.
Roy Katz
Roy Katz
Roy Katz serves as an independent director at PayJoy Inc., leveraging his extensive entrepreneurial background and expertise in technology and law. His career is marked by over 30 years of engagement with Latin American countries and a deep involvement in the tech sector. As an attorney, Roy skillfully combines legal, technological, and financial knowledge to operate across diverse international landscapes. Prior to PayJoy, he founded and led Katz & Lopez law firm since 1994 and co-founded Advanced Communication Network, among other ventures. Roy is a Law graduate with an Executive Program specialization from Harvard Business School. His unique blend of skills and experiences significantly enriches PayJoy's global and strategic endeavors.


We are happy to announce that PayJoy has been 100% carbon neutral since 2022
PayJoy finances the customers your current distribution can't reach. You get the sale. We handle the credit.
Our Office Locations
PayJoy is a boots-on-the-ground operation. From our headquarters in San Francisco to our regional hubs across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, we are where our customers are.
India

Indonesia
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Philippines
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Colombia
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Panama
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Peru
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Ecuador
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China
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South Africa
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Mexico
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China
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Colombia
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Ecuador
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India

Indonesia
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Mexico
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Panama
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Peru
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Philippines
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South Africa
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