PayNearMe Celebrates Processing $1B in Digital Loan Disbursements to Fund Low-Income, Entrepreneurial Women For Nonprofit Grameen America

PayNearMe makes disbursing loans as easy, fast and convenient as receiving electronic payments; allows clients to offer customers more options for how to receive funds

SANTA CLARA, Calif., April 18, 2023 – PayNearMe, a fast-growing fintech company radically improving the customer payment experience, celebrates processing a total of $1 billion in digital loan disbursements to low-income, entrepreneurial women for Grameen America, a national nonprofit microfinance organization.

“During the last two years, we have utilized PayNearMe digital Disbursements to send over $1 billion to thousands of financially underserved women entrepreneurs,” said Marcus Berkowitz, Chief Product and Innovation Officer at Grameen America.

“This technology allows Grameen America to disburse capital quickly and safely, while giving our members more options for how they receive their loans.” 

Grameen America has been working with PayNearMe for nearly a decade. The partnership was first established in 2014 to digitize cash repayments, and was extended to include electronic loan repayment options, including ACH and debit cards—all through a single integration. The microfinance organization then adopted PayNearMe’s push-to-debit digital disbursements and is now expanding its disbursement methods in 2023. 

“Consumers are accustomed to making electronic payments using a variety of payment methods, and they expect to be able to receive funds in the same fashion,” said John Minor, SVP Product, PayNearMe. “Not only are we facilitating this for our clients, but we’re also making the entire payment experience—from payout to payment—fast, easy and seamless.” 

The company’s full digital Disbursements engine gives all PayNearMe clients a fast, secure way to send funds to customers. It streamlines loan disbursements, escrow refunds, insurance claim payouts and more. In addition to the options that Grameen America offers today, PayNearMe’s Disbursements engine also makes funds available via PayPal and Venmo—all through a single platform integration. 

About PayNearMe

PayNearMe develops technology that drives better payment experiences for businesses and their customers. Our modern, flexible and reliable platform helps businesses increase customer engagement, improve operational efficiency and drive down the total cost of accepting payments. PayNearMe enables more ways to pay by offering all major payment types and channels in a single platform.

PayNearMe today processes a wide range of payment types including Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, Venmo, cards and ACH, and has enabled cash payments through our proprietary cash network since 2009. PayNearMe cash payments are accepted at more than 40,000 retail locations in the U.S. including participating 7-Eleven®, Walmart®, Family Dollar®, Casey’s General Stores® and ACE Cash Express®, among others.

Thousands of businesses partner with PayNearMe to manage the end-to-end customer payment experience in industries such as Consumer Finance, Property Management, Insurance, Utility and Municipality and iGaming and Sports Betting.

To learn more about PayNearMe, please visit www.paynearme.com. Follow PayNearMe on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. The PayNearMe service is operated by PayNearMe MT, Inc., a licensed money transmitter.

About Grameen America

Founded by Nobel Peace Prize recipient Muhammad Yunus, Grameen America is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit microfinance organization dedicated to helping low-income women entrepreneurs build small businesses to create better lives for their families. The organization offers microloans, training, and support to transform communities and fight poverty in the United States. Since opening in January 2008, Grameen America has invested over $3 billion in more than 164,000 low-income women entrepreneurs. Opening originally in Jackson Heights, Queens, Grameen America has expanded to 25 cities in Austin, TX, Boston, MA, Camden, NJ, Charlotte, NC, Chicago, IL, Connecticut, Dallas, TX, Fresno, CA, Houston, TX, Indianapolis, IN, Los Angeles, CA, Memphis, TN, Miami, FL, Newark, NJ, New York City, NY, Omaha, NE, Oakland, CA, San Antonio, TX, San Jose, CA, Trenton, NJ and Union City, NJ.