Millennial Lending App Attracts New Partners

Lenny, a mobile lending app that provides microloans to millennials, is expanding its offerings under a new partnership with digital payments network Dwolla.

The partnership will now enable Lenny to extend a whole new variety of offerings, including transfers, account creation and verification through a much cheaper and faster in-house payment operation.

“Our goal is to provide a seamless and highly secure platform for our users’ transactions, and Dwolla definitely meets all of our safety and security requirements,” said Lenny CEO Joe Bayen. “Additionally, Dwolla‘s recent blessing from Wall Street and various government organizations further validates our decision.”

The company’s microloan program reportedly kicked off after a recent round of seed funding from an unknown investor that filled up the Santa Monica, CA-based company’s coffers, giving it the ability to offer loans up to $500 with quarterly balance increases of up to $300 if the borrower pays back in time.

Lenny gives extra points to loan applicants with a strong GPA.

With added functionalities, such as transfers, Lenny’s platform is now exclusively targeting millennials with little to no credit history as it guarantees to help them build one without putting down a deposit, which most traditional banks demand for offering secure credit cards.

“Lenny is on a great path to make it easier for college students to start building their credit history in a responsible way,” said CEO and founder of Dwolla, Ben Milne. “Dwolla’s end-to-end payment system allows Lenny to put their resources behind their core business: building a credit history for people who need one.”

Instead, the company relies on other factors, including educational background. It gives extra points to loan applicants with a strong GPA.

The company is also focusing on developing its platform into a go-to Wikipedia of sorts for personal finance education and credit score improvement tips.