student-lending
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Okiemute Avworhokai’s second education
Before co-founding Miden, Okiemute Dominic Avworhokai had spent years in banking and built a student-credit business. Y Combinator gave him another education - and a sharper view of what African businesses need from their money.
Dan Feshbach and the price of knowing
He built a business around the details hidden inside mortgage loans. At MeasureOne, Dan Feshbach discovered that a successful idea could travel to a new market - but the route to the data would have to change.
Casey Powers
Casey Powers is the CEO of Climb Credit, a New York-based fintech that finances career-focused and vocational education for students of all credit profiles. She rose to the top job in February 2022 after three years as Climb's Chief Operating Officer, bringing more than 15 years of experience across investment banking and mission-driven fintech startups. A vocal advocate for skills-based hiring, Powers has centered her leadership on expanding access to affordable education that improves earning potential for underserved learners and career switchers.
Jeannie Tarkenton
Jeannie Tarkenton is the founder and CEO of Funding U (Funding University), an Atlanta-based fintech lender that makes no-cosigner student loans to high-achieving, low-income undergraduates based on grades, grit and trajectory rather than a parent's credit score. A Princeton English major who spent a decade in Atlanta education nonprofits, she built an AI underwriting model that reads transcripts and internships instead of FICO and balance sheets. Since 2018 the company has deployed well over $125 million to thousands of mostly first-generation students, and counts Goldman Sachs and her former college roommate MacKenzie Scott among its backers.