Propel

Our Impact Areas

About Us

Overview

Propel builds modern, respectful, and effective technology that helps low-income Americans improve their financial health. Over 5 million people use our app, Providers, to check their benefits balances, stay up to date on critical government programs, save money, and earn income. In addition, we’re expanding further into the financial services space by building a new debit card, specifically designed to help low-income Americans.

Our Story

Everyone on the team is mission-driven and committed to elevating our users’ experience and financial health.

As the son of struggling immigrants, Jimmy (founder and CEO) experienced firsthand a deep need for helping Americans with limited income improve their financial wellbeing. The technology for checking available SNAP balances didn’t work well on mobile devices, and calling a phone line required a 16-digit number. Jimmy founded Propel in 2014 to address this issue with just $11,000 from a Kickstarter campaign. Now, over five million families across the country rely on Propel.

The pandemic only heightened the need for our app called Providers: thousands of people living paycheck-to-paycheck lost their jobs, contracted COVID-19 at a disproportionate rate, or needed to choose between working and watching their kids when schools closed. We partnered with GiveDirectly to distribute $180 million to randomly selected app users, giving them each $1,000 in one-time grants.

Recently, we raised a $50M Series B to expand one of our newest products, the Providers Card, and build new features for our users to make or save money. If you’d like to join a team that is passionate about building products that serve Americans with limited income, we’re hiring!

Read more about our Engineering Team's culture and values here.

Our Tech Stack