Mobility Capital Finance (MoCaFi)

MoCaFi—short for Mobility Capital Finance—is a New York–based fintech devoted to serving customers from among the 50 million people with no or limited access to banks, and giving them the tools that help build wealth over generations. The company was founded by Wole Coaxum, a former JPMorgan Chase managing director, in the wake of the killing of teenager Michael Brown by police in Ferguson, Mo., in 2014, an event that highlighted the country’s yawning disparities in wealth and services between white and Black communities. Since then, MoCaFi has worked with cities and nonprofits to help people gain access to money in innovative ways—without the kinds of predatory fees that typically plague the underbanked. In Paterson, N.J., the company is distributing universal basic income payments of $400 a month to over 100 residents in need for a year. The company’s Represent program partners with Black-owned local businesses to give MoCaFi debit card users as much as 1.5% back for their purchases. During the pandemic, MoCaFi distributed Immediate Response Cards in Brooklyn so that people could transfer subsidies and benefits in real time, a deal that was conducted in partnership with the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corp., the MetLife Foundation, and the Robin Hood Foundation.

Unlike many other venture-backed startups, MoCaFi has collaborated regularly with municipal governments, working with authorities in places like Los Angeles, Honolulu, Newark, and Columbia, S.C., to distribute funds and give people access to banking services, like direct deposit, checking accounts, and card services, all without fees. The startup has also partnered with Rocket Mortgage on a program that eliminates $2,500 worth of closing fees for new, unbanked homeowners in Detroit—cutting out the kinds of costs that can act as a barrier to greater generational wealth.