CapWay, Created by Sheena Allen Targets Underbanked Millennials

In 2011, Sheena Allen made a huge splash in the tech industry when launching her company, Sheena Allen Apps. With over 3 million downloads, and shockingly no coding experience, she is already on to bigger and better. In 2016, Allen created CapWay – a company made to educate millennials on finance, and bank the unbanked. 

The FDIC recently reported that 25.2 percent of American households are unbanked or underbanked. Of that percentage, 58.7 percent of unbanked households are highly unlikely to join a bank within the next 12 months. Additionally, it was found in 2017 that unbanked rates for black and Latinx households were substantially higher than the overall unbaked rate.

That is where CapWay comes in. Defined as a social, fintech company, Allen plans to provide a debit card service that also educates its users on financial literacy. This is through social content with educational aspects. Her end goal is to cultivate financial literacy through content, and to make sure those unbanked users actually end up with a bank account.

There are numerous reasons as to why households would choose to not use banks. The most common reasons include a mistrust with banks, fear of inconsistent and high bank account fees, or they simply do not have enough money to keep in an account.

The mobile platform, mainly, provides debit cards for the target audience of unbanked, working millennials. Through the application, users will gain a better understanding of their finances, and have recommendations and opportunities to better their financial well being.

Though right now CapWay is focusing on its debit cards and social platform, they will work towards adding more features in the future. The company has been working closely with schools, communities, businesses, and employers to better the application and make it a worthwhile download for the intended audience.  

“We understand the problem,” says CapWay’s site, “but most importantly, we understand the people with the problem and that is one of our biggest competitive advantages.”