From Pawnshop to Public Company: The Fintech Journey of OppFi

More than 60 million people have credit scores too low to obtain credit despite being fully employed and having stable incomes. This lack of access to credit makes them vulnerable to emergencies that can lead to financial hardship, heavy debt and ultimately bankruptcy.

Todd Schwartz (BSM '03) recognized that troubling disparity, and in 2012 he founded OppFi to empower customers to improve their financial security and well-being through credit access, savings and wealth accumulation. For the 2024 R. W. Freeman Distinguished Lecture, Schwartz, founder, CEO and executive chairman of OppFi, will sit down with Myke Yest, senior professor of practice in finance, for a wide-ranging discussion that will chart OppFi’s journey from a Chicago pawnshop to a mission-driven publicly traded fintech company and highlight the company’s future prospects as well as those of the broader fintech sector.

For those unable to attend in person, the conversation will be livestreamed on the Freeman School's Facebook and Instagram pages.