Overview
*REGISTRATION FOR THIS EVENT IS AT CAPACITY AND NOW CLOSED*
Bloomberg, Cornell Tech, and Tech:NYC invite you to join us for the latest in-person installment of the Cornell Tech @ Bloomberg Speaker Series, featuring Wemimo Abbey, Co-founder & Co-CEO of Esusu, in conversation with Caroline Hyde of Bloomberg Television.
Wemimo Abbey grew up in the slums of Lagos, Nigeria before moving to Minnesota with his family at the age of 17. When applying for loans to send Wemimo to college, his family was turned away by several banks because they didn’t have a credit score, a reality faced by approximately one in 10 U.S. adults. Wemimo’s personal story inspired him to found Esusu, a financial technology platform working to close the racial wealth gap by reporting on-time rent payments to the major credit bureaus, thereby helping renters establish and build credit scores.
In addition to providing on-time credit reporting solutions, Esusu also offers 0% interest rent relief solutions for renters experiencing financial hardship, a fund that was born out of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the company’s founding in 2016, Esusu’s customers have grown to three million rental units across all 50 states. In January 2022, the company raised a $130 million Series B round led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2, making it one of the very few Black-owned unicorns in the U.S.
We hope you’ll join us for this conversation, in which Wemimo will discuss how his family’s story formed his perspective on entrepreneurship, why traditional financial services remain out of reach for historically marginalized communities, the revamps still needed by the credit score system, and what it will take to permanently close the racial wealth gap.
Twitter: @TechAtBloomberg
Facebook: Cornell Tech @ Bloomberg
Agenda
- 5:30PM
Cocktail reception begins
- 6:00PM
Doors close, conversation starts
- 6:45PM
Audience Q&A with Cornell Tech students
- 7:00PM
Networking and hors d’oeuvres to follow
PLEASE NOTE: Seating is limited and registered attendees will be seated on a first-come, first-served basis. Doors close promptly at the top of the hour. Individuals arriving late may be turned away from the building. No walk-ins will be allowed.
*REGISTRATION FOR THIS EVENT IS AT CAPACITY AND NOW CLOSED*
Speaker
Wemimo Abbey
Wemimo Abbey is the Co-Founder & Co-CEO of Esusu, the leading financial technology company advancing rent reporting and data solutions for credit building, and one the first Black-owned FinTech unicorns. Prior to Esusu, Wemimo founded Clean Water for Everyone, a global social venture providing affordable access to clean water for 250,000+ people in six countries. He also founded a data analytics company designed to gather machine-readable data on NGOs operating in Africa, which was acquired in 2014. Previously, Wemimo was a Mergers & Acquisitions Consultant at PWC, where he worked on more than 20 deals and gained valuable experience working with Accenture, the European Commission, and Goldman Sachs. Wemimo has been named to the 2022 Fortune 40 Under 40, 2022 Crain’s 40 Under 40, the 2022 class ofBloomberg New Economy Catalysts, and the 2020 Forbes 30 Under 30 list, among others. He regularly speaks at global conferences, has presented at the United Nations, the World Food Prize, the Clinton Global Initiative, and has testified in front of the U.S. Congress on combating ‘tech bro’ culture.
When & Where
Thursday, February 23, 2023
5:30pm – 8:00pm EST
Bloomberg
731 Lexington Avenue
New York, NY
7 MPR
- Bloomberg
- Cornell Tech
- Tech:NYC