Fintech Platform MPOWER Financing Raises $100 Million in Equity to Support Students Worldwide
The funding will fuel the company’s mission to make education accessible to high-promise international students
WASHINGTON, DC, July 13, 2021: MPOWER Financing, an innovative fintech platform and the leading provider of education loans to high-promise students around the world, today announced that it has raised an equity investment of $100 million. The raise underscores investors’ confidence in MPOWER’s position as the leading financial platform for students aspiring to study in the U.S. and Canada.
The funding is in addition to the $30 million MPOWER Financing raised earlier this year from Tilden Park Capital Management, which also participated in the current round, and ETS Strategic Capital on behalf of ETS, the world’s largest non-profit educational assessment, research and measurement organization. Other investors in the current round include King Street Capital Management, Drakes Landing Associates, and Pennington Alternative Income Management.
There are more than one million international students currently studying in the U.S. and 600,000 studying in Canada; numbers which are expected to rise rapidly as COVID-19 restrictions continue to be lifted. Education funding and covering related on-campus costs are a primary concern among prospective students, which MPOWER directly addresses by providing scholarships and loans to students from 200+ countries.
Founded in 2014 by Emmanuel (Manu) Smadja, a McKinsey and Capital One alumnus, MPOWER Financing aims to democratize education by reducing financial barriers for high-promise students from around the world. MPOWER’s loans are approved instantly and are granted at competitive interest rates without requiring a cosigner or collateral.
“We’re delighted to be working with experienced investors who share our vision of empowering the brightest students from around the world,” said Smadja, Chief Executive Officer of MPOWER Financing. “The new funds will be used to directly support students, automate and scale our operations, and grow our team in Bangalore, India. We look forward to supporting an even greater number of qualified students from around the globe as they venture to study in the U.S. and Canada.”
“We are excited to partner with MPOWER Financing as it operates a truly differentiated business model where it not only lends to students, but also offers career guidance and supports students throughout their journey,” said Chris Gamaitoni, Managing Director of Tilden Park Capital Management. “The team’s mission and commitment to their students are inspiring. We are thrilled to support MPOWER Financing as it continues to expand its global reach and support even more students. We look forward to building on the company’s successes together.”
“MPOWER Financing underwrites loans based on students’ academic achievements and career path, which is a remarkably innovative approach that leverages massive and disparate sets of proprietary data,” said McLean Copus, Senior Analyst at King Street Capital Management. “Their platform provides more financial access to students and results in significantly better credit outcomes for the company. We were compelled by MPOWER Financing’s portfolio performance against standard benchmarks, and their low volatility during economically challenging times and look forward to our continued work with the company.”
About MPOWER Financing:
MPOWER Financing, headquartered in Washington, D.C. and with offices worldwide, is a mission-driven fintech company and the leading provider of global education loans that do not require a cosigner. It is the only student lender worldwide that uses a proprietary algorithm to analyze overseas and domestic credit data and future earning potential to serve high-promise international and DACA students. MPOWER works with over 350 top universities across the U.S. and Canada to provide financing to students from 200+ countries. The MPOWER team, which consists heavily of former international students, helps build students’ credit histories and provides them with personal financial education and career support to prepare for life after school. MPOWER was named one of the best places to work, one of the best tech workplaces for diversity, and one of American Banker’s top fintech firms to work for four years in a row. The team is backed by Zephyr Peacock, Breega, Potencia Ventures, Goal Solutions, Gray Matters Capital, Cometa, AI8, DreamIt, 1776, Village Capital, Fresco, K Street, and University Ventures.
About Tilden Park Capital Management:
Tilden Park Capital Management LP is a multi-strategy fixed-income-focused alternative asset manager headquartered in New York City. The firm concentrates primarily on structured products and mortgages, fixed income relative value and related corporate credit and equity strategies. Tilden Park is led by Chief Investment Officer Josh Birnbaum, who previously co-managed trading at Goldman Sachs’ Structured Products Group.
About King Street Capital Management:
King Street is a $20 billion global investment management firm founded in 1995 with offices in New York, London, Singapore, Tokyo and Charlottesville, VA. With over 25 years of experience as a global credit specialist, King Street employs a fundamental, research-intensive approach across multiple strategies, markets, industries and asset classes including an expanding lending platform.
