Propel Software

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CTW.1122.Propel

Many financial startups claim they want to make life better for low-income consumers—but when it comes to easing poverty, Propel actually has the receipts. The Brooklyn-based startup makes a smartphone app that people who qualify for food stamps can use, for free, to check their balances and manage their benefits. More than 5 million American households now use Propel’s app, which also distributes other government benefits (including stimulus checks during the pandemic) and provides a debit card that doesn't charge monthly or overdraft fees. (The company says that 3 million users have signed up for the debit card.) Founder and CEO Jimmy Chen, who started Propel in 2014, has since raised more than $80 million in venture capital for his company, which is now privately valued at more than $500 million. Propel makes money from selling digital advertising and “classifieds” space within its app—grocery stores hawk coupons, employers post job listings—and from interchange fees when users swipe their debit cards. The company is not yet profitable, but Chen says its (undisclosed) revenue has doubled on an annual basis in each of the past three years. And he points out that his company doesn’t have to separate its core business from its social-impact aims: “When I started Propel in 2014, I aspired to build an organization whose social mission and business model were so deeply entwined, you couldn't have one without the other,” he says. “While we've faced challenges along the way, I think we've been able to demonstrate that that is possible [and] sustainable over the long term.”

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Impact 20-2020-Propel

What if you still had to call a 1-800 number every single time you wanted to check your bank-account balance? That’s somehow still the reality for the 40 million Americans on food stamps—minus the 4 million who are now using the crucial, should-be-basic smartphone app created by startup Propel. Its Fresh EBT app allows users to check their food-stamp balances immediately, instead of waiting on hold with the government. Since the onset of COVID-19, Propel has also introduced new tech to help users figure out how to get more immediate access to their stimulus checks, and it has distributed more than $100 million in donations to its users, in $1,000 increments.<br />
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Founder and CEO Jimmy Chen was four years old when he emigrated to the U.S. with his parents, who sometimes struggled to put food on the table. He went on to work for Facebook and LinkedIn, and now he gets annoyed about tech companies that focus only on wealthier and more lucrative customers, “leaving very low-income Americans with incredibly poor services.” His efforts to change that status quo have helped build a company now valued at more than $54 million, after Propel raised more than $18 million from investors including Kleiner Perkins, Andreessen Horowitz, Kevin Durant, and Serena Williams.

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