Fintech Acquisition To Help Spur Entrepreneurship

MMI – Male Mogul Initiative Founder Walter Mendenhall, along with Jewell Loyd and Jarrad Loyd, acquired Helpwithmyloan. Photo provided by Story & Reach Communications.
MMI – Male Mogul Initiative Founder Walter Mendenhall, along with Jewell Loyd and Jarrad Loyd, acquired Helpwithmyloan. Photo provided by Story & Reach Communications.

Fintech Acquisition To Help Spur Entrepreneurship

By Tia Carol Jones

Walter Mendenhall, Founder of Male Mogul Initiative, along with WNBA player Jewell Loyd and her brother, Jarryd Loyd, have acquired the financial technology company Helpwithmyloan.

The Male Mogul Initiative was founded by Mendenhall in 2017, with the goal of empowering young men, ages 13 years old to 24, to be successful entrepreneurs through leadership and character development. In 2024, Male Mogul Initiative opened CO-LLAB in Englewood to house the organization’s entrepreneurial training and mentorship program.

Helpwithmyloan is an Artificial Intelligence-based brokerage that uses optical character recognition (OCR) technology to underwrite loans. Mendenhall said the technology enables Helpwithmyloan to process a loan 80 times faster than a human would be able to, and with that information, the company can match the loan application with a lender at a 95% success rate.

"Growing up, I saw firsthand how access to resources can define someone’s future,” Loyd & Co. Co-Founder Jewell Loyd said in a press release. “That’s why I’m passionate about the work we’re doing at Loyd & Co. and thrilled about the Help With My Loan acquisition, which allows us to expand our impact. This company is breaking down barriers for minority entrepreneurs, providing them with the capital and technology to compete on an equal playing field. Too often, small business owners — particularly those from underserved communities —are overlooked or denied funding by traditional financial institutions. We’re here to change that."

Mendenhall said acquiring the Helpwithmyloan aligns with the mission and goals of the Male Mogul Initiative because it is creating a workforce and helping young men in the program become commercial loan and business brokers. Having these skills as loan officers will enable the young men to find employment and careers in the banking industry and at financial institutions. In 2022, Male Mogul Initiative launches its Community Wealth Building Ecosystem, which is a project of the organizations Male Mogul Enterprise L3C. This acquisition is part of the Community Wealth Building Ecosystem.

“We invested in Helpwithmyloan to equip the next generation of loan officers with the skills and resources to help individuals and businesses access capital — a critical step toward economic mobility and sustainable community development. This reflects Male Mogul Initiative’s philosophy that young people can shape and facilitate community revitalization,” Mendenhall said in a press release.

Through the young men’s training to become loan and business officers, they learned about the products available, financial terminology, lines of credit, as well as soft skills on how to manage customer-lender relationships. Jarrad Loyd is in the financial space as the majority owner of Loyd & Co, an asset management firm. His sister, Jewell Loyd, will enhance the brand’s presence, elevate the initiative and forge lasting relationships with key stakeholders.

Mendenhall said the goal of acquiring Helpwithmyloan is to use capital and reallocate into the community. The plan is to move Helpwithmyloan from Pasadena, Calif. to Chicago, with an office in downtown Chicago and one in Englewood. Mendenhall said there are plans to acquire more businesses that align with the Male Mogul Initiative’s mission, which is transforming the way young men live and lead in their communities, through leadership and entrepreneurship development.

“The more jobs we can create, the more income we can generate, the more impact we can have in our communities,” Mendenhall said. He added that creating jobs, having an entrepreneurial ecosystem and teaching financial literacy, Chicago can be transformed and young men can be assets and pillars in the Black community.

For more information about the Male Mogul Initiative, visit www.malemogulinitiative.org.  For more information about Helpwithmyloan, visit helpwithmyloan.com.


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