Payzel Archives - Green Market Report

StaffOctober 25, 2021

The inaugural Frontier Finance Awards were named last week at the MJBiz conference in Las Vegas Nevada where Currency Research was broadcasting The Cash Show live from the event. Awarding the prizes to each bank was noted industry veteran Todd Kleperis who founded cannabis banking solution company Payzel after selling his armored car business in cannabis.

The Frontier Finance Award was given to Fresno First Bank for “Growth In Market” and First Federal Bank received the “Strongest Growth in Lending.” This is the first time banks have competed for the best bank in Cannabis. Banks have notoriously been remiss about their work in cannabis but the tide is changing and more banks are competing for the best financial performances they have done to gain industry acceptance.

Kleperis was best known previously as the founder of HARDCAR which moved the currency for the cannabis industry as well as moved the product for some of the best brands in cannabis. HARDCAR was the first company in the nation to both move the product and cash as a legal cannabis distribution company and armored car firm. Having moved billions of dollars and seeing where the industry was headed, Todd sold HARDCAR and pursued building a fintech firm.

Payzel was formed out of his work at Harvard University where he met his now co-founder, Lauren Cohen a noted expert on fintech. The two set out to change the face of banking high risk industries and have brought forward amazing banks that already are in the hardest frontier industry there is today. Payzel has received funding from The Holt Exchange, the largest fintech group in Canada. At the forefront of any industry, there are those that take the risks to make things happen. Payzel believes those frontier industries are the way of the future and deserve banking today.

StaffMarch 2, 2020

Not only do cannabis companies face banking challenges, but the employees also face the stigma of the big green leaf. Banks are notoriously conservative when it comes to cannabis and that hurts employees who just want a car loan or a mortgage. The founders of cannabis logistics company Hardcar, saw first hand the struggles with banking and stepped up with a solution.

This new fintech company PAYZEL said it has secured banks to do home loans and other financial services for employees of cannabis companies. The company said that by shifting banks interest from just mortgages on buildings, which Payzel already does, to add homes was a natural evolution. The company arrived at this solution based on market demand from partners across the United States.

Payzel founder Todd Kleparis said, “Companies had called us a number of times telling us that employees just couldn’t get a loan at the banks they were using. Wanting to help, we went to our already established network of banks and offered up a way to expedite the loan process and have cannabis employees be able to get car loans and home loans all in one place. So now a company can get access to legal banking plus help to facilitate their employee’s needs as well. Most banks will not do home loans or offer other financial services but fortunately, we have forged fantastic relationships with many banks over the past four years. This is a major milestone for Payzel in its infancy and a major win for the cannabis space as a whole.”

With capital becoming so tight these days, cannabis companies may be drawn to a provider that is willing to make loans not only to the businesses, but also to employees. Since the founders have been involved with the cannabis industry for some time in California, they do not stigma issues and recognize the industry’s problems. High operational costs that currently exist within the industry, including licensing and banking fees, drove the creation of Payzel – with a tag line “Forged out of Frustration”.

“With this new expansion of offerings, we believe we are still the one and only financial services platform with real banks accepting real cannabis companies without insane fees,” added Kleparis. “Most other services offering to get cannabis companies to banks are either some sort of wacky custodial account which you don’t even own or a looney scheme to get people paying a fee. Payzel does none of that. We are the Trip Advisor and Lending Tree of Cannabis.”

Payzel says its accounts are insurance-backed and that credit card services will be coming soon.