A Charlotte, North Carolina, fintech startup focused on easing the pain of paying back student loans was acquired this week by Franklin-based Ramsey Solutions, owned by personal finance expert Dave Ramsey.
Apay Financial was founded in 2019 by Blake Wood and Owen Brady, who met while working together at Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC). As borrowers themselves, Wood and Brady quickly realized nothing really existed to make the process of managing and paying back their loans easier.
"Student loans are an issue a lot of young folks deal with, and we felt like there wasn’t a great solution out there like you find with traditional budgeting tools," Wood said. "A goal, as it relates to our product, is that we want to help people understand their student loans, keep track of their progress and ultimately save money."
Ramsey Solutions' acquisition of Apay was finalized last week, a move that Wood said will give millions of people the opportunity to access the platform. Wood and Brady will stay on as part of the Ramsey team — Wood as a product manager and Brady as an engineer.
"Ramsey is a multimillion-dollar operation, and we’re a really small fish in that pond," Wood said. "There was so much overlap between what we were trying to do with helping people get out of student loan debt as quickly as possible, and what they ultimately represent and do."
Brendan Wovchko, senior technology officer at Ramsey Solutions, said in a news release that Apay's platform and mission aligned well with its own.
“We’re always looking to add technology, products and people to our team that empower others in all areas of their lives," he said.
Ramsey, whose talk-radio show airs on more than 600 stations, started his Ramsey Solutions financial counseling business almost 30 years ago. Today, it's one of the largest private employers in Williamson County, with close to 1,000 employees at a multi-building headquarters in Franklin's Berry Farms development. Ramsey has become one of the biggest talk-radio personalities in the nation, as detailed in this 2018 profile in Politico.
