Company type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Software development |
Founded | 2014 |
Headquarters | |
Area served | United States |
Key people |
|
Website | joinpropel |
Propel, Inc. is an American fintech software company that builds services for low income families. It is best known for Providers, a mobile app that allows users to track their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) balances and other government benefits. Approximately one quarter of American households receiving SNAP benefits are enrolled in the app. [2]
Propel was founded in 2014 in Brooklyn, New York City by Jimmy Chen, a former Facebook engineer, [3] through a fellowship at Robin Hood Foundation's tech incubator Blue Ridge Labs. [2] The company initially developed a website to help New York City residents apply for SNAP benefits. [4] The company raised $11,000 in crowdfunding from Kickstarter, but failed to get any additional funding after pitching the idea to around 60 investors. [5]
The company pivoted to FreshEBT, an app that allows SNAP users to check their SNAP balances without calling their state's benefits provider. [5] The app was released on the Google and Apple app stores in 2016. [6] The app was later renamed to Providers. [5]
In 2017, Propel raised $4 million in a seed funding round from Andreessen Horowitz, Kevin Durant, Nas, Omidyar Network, and other investors. [7] It raised a further $12.8 million in a Series A in 2018, [8] after which the company opened an office in Downtown Brooklyn. [9]
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Propel assisted users in applying for increased food stamp payments or other pandemic-specific programs. [10] The company also partnered with charities such as GiveDirectly [11] [12] to distribute over $10 million cash payments to its users. [10]
The company also runs a debit card banking product designed for government benefits recipients. The company raised an additional $50 million in a Series B funding round in 2022, most of it intended for expansion of the debit product. [2]
Propel focuses on software for low-income households, especially SNAP recipients.
In 2018, Conduent accused Propel of overloading its network with data requests. The company, which operates the Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) network for 25 states, took action to block Propel's "unauthorized access" to its network. Propel estimated this affected approximately 80% of its users. [6] In California, the app was offline for more than a month. [13]
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In the United States, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as the Food Stamp Program, is a federal government program that provides food-purchasing assistance for low- and no-income people to help them maintain adequate nutrition and health. It is a federal aid program administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) under the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), though benefits are distributed by specific departments of U.S. states.
Electronic benefit transfer (EBT) is an electronic system that allows state welfare departments to issue benefits via a magnetically encoded payment card used in the United States. It reached nationwide operations in 2004. The average monthly EBT payout is $230 per participant as of 2022.
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