One of the biggest highlights of the last decade has been the gigantic use of online banking globally. This widespread adoption has also given birth to countless FinTech startups, 75% of which actually fail in a short time, according to a few studies. FinTech, which is one of the fastest growing sectors, also represents complex traditional systems that are difficult to crack.
Especially given the myriad of compliance requirements and integration complexities, only a small handful of entrepreneurs have succeeded in this domain. Jessica Zhang is one of the select few who have worked wonders with revolutionary products. Jessica is a high-impact FinTech leader and entrepreneur who has transformed traditional FinTech systems and enabled companies to expand their reach with her contributions on Stilt and its credit-as-a-service platform, Onbo.
Jessica’s journey with Stilt and Onbo
As a key leader in Stilt and the founding team of Onbo, Jessica led the team to create Onbo, a game-changing lending infrastructure dubbed the “AWS for Lending.” Onbo has changed and simplified the way lending infrastructure was built by both FinTech and non-traditional FinTech companies, just like how AWS transformed data storage for software.
Creating and launching a credit product for FinTech companies has always been a difficult task, but Onbo makes it seamless with a user-friendly and developer-centric API. It offers a full-stack “credit-as-a-service” infrastructure that can be used to launch credit products without changing the current stack of the FinTech company. Onbo takes care of all the lending complexities – its ‘plug and play’ solution removes the burdens of acting as a lending institution. It takes care of regulatory compliance, licenses, loan assignments, loan management, debt capital reporting, partner integrations, risk management, etc.
Along with all this, Onbo also enables customization through modular and scalable solutions. It enables business customers to focus on their core value proposition, customer experiences and innovations, while the technology is handled by Onbo. This solution saves companies millions of dollars and is already doing so for several companies and industries.
This is reflected in comments from key FinTech leaders such as Michael Borton, CEO and co-founder of Altro, who said: “Onbo gave us the flexibility to test in-market quickly and get real lines of credit in users’ hands within weeks. This allowed us to iterate the product quickly based on real feedback and empowered us with agility and flexibility as we grew.”
Onbo disrupts traditional systems with tools like “Credit Builder”
Onbo comes with a long list of capabilities, such that “Credit Builder” is one of the popular use cases. Kredittbygger is a tool for consumers with little or no credit history to establish a credit history over time. Usually this is done through a series of microloans that are used for daily purchases over a course of 6 to 24 months.
Per the CFPB, 26 million American adults are “credit invisible” and 19 million have “thin credit” — that’s a combined 18% of the population and workforce. Recent research suggests that bad credit can cost consumers up to $5,000 each year and over $90,000 over a lifetime.
For many decades, only banks or credit unions offered credit builders, given its complexity and fragmented infrastructures. Recently, there has been a growing demand for non-traditional players who see these value propositions and enable economic sustainability for underserved communities. These changes are poised to change the world of FinTech and how people engage with financial products and services.
Jessica’s role in building Onbo and the direct economic and social impact that enables financial inclusion and sustainability
As the vision and brain power behind Onbo, Jessica wears many hats and leads the effort to define, design and develop Onbo. Onbo is considered the backbone of financial innovation – the core infrastructure for financial services through the latest technological innovations.
“In particular, the new product represents an expansion for Stilt from having a strict consumer focus to include a B2B offering that can grow to become an even bigger source of revenue,” said Rohit Mittal, CEO and co-founder.
The combined efforts of the team and Jessica’s vision have led Stilt to raise over $375 million in combined equity and debt capital backed by prominent investors including Y Combinator, Link Ventures, Streamlined Ventures, Silicon Valley Bank and executives from Doordash, Stripe, Brex , etc.
Speaking to Techcrunch, Lisa Dolan, Board Member of Link Ventures stated, “Stilt is now taking its next step in changing the game of access to credit in the US. Onbo will enable traditional and non-traditional financial services companies to offer optimized lending products for their communities out of the gate.”
Experienced Founder, Social Entrepreneur, Corporate Impact
Jessica brings a promising story of professional success and corporate impact. She co-founded and successfully developed Oppti, an all-in-one career development platform that helps students, school districts and Fortune 500 companies manage workforce training and career development. She is also behind Building BLOC, a 501c3 nonprofit that facilitates virtual mentorship and professional networking opportunities for high school students.
Jessica started her career as CFO of Global Trade at JP Morgan with a balance sheet of $5 trillion. She has contributed to over $7 billion in transaction due diligence and advisory across various asset types for institutional clients including Blackstone, Goldman Sachs, MGM, Colony Capital, PCCP, etc.
Due to her achievements and expertise, Jessica is regularly invited as a judge and speaker on prominent panels such as Fintech Nexus, 12th Annual Business Excellence Awards by Globee Business Awards, Fintech Finance Awards 2022 and Global Stevie Awards for Women in Business, to name a few few.
Promote global innovation and sustainability
Jessica and her team are well positioned to continue building a sustainable global economy through innovation and technology. As the world recovers from COVID-19 with rising interest rates and a looming recession, Jessica aims to make financial products more accessible to the public with a focus on financial inclusion and sustainability, saving households millions of dollars in expenses and indirectly creating millions of job opportunities.
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