A Former Google Executive's Payday-Loan Alternative
Doug Merrill, former Google Inc. (GOOG) chief information officer and vice president of engineering, came up with the idea for start-up ZestCash Inc. after seeing his sister-in-law struggle to pay for new tires.
“She was able to call me,” Merrill said. “It’s not a big amount money in the scheme of things. But what do others do when they need money?”
ZestCash provides a way for people to get short-term loans without having to use expensive “payday loan” rates. Backed by an undisclosed seed financing from Flybridge Capital Partners and GRP Partners, the company is targeting the 50 million to 60 million “unbanked” consumers who do not have a bank account or have limited access to one. Of those, about 30 million took a payday or pawn-shop loan last year, according to the company.
