Vola
Vola is a US mobile-first consumer fintech offering interest-free cash advances (up to $500), credit building via rent reporting, expense tracking, and an AI budgeting assistant (Dinero) to 1M+ underbanked and budget-conscious users on a freemium subscription model.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2017
- HeadquartersBrooklyn, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2C
- OfferingSoftware
What Vola does
Vola is a US-based consumer fintech operating a mobile-first financial wellness super-app targeted at underbanked, credit-building, and budget-conscious consumers. The platform offers interest-free cash advances up to $500 (no credit check, no late fees), rent and utility payment reporting to credit bureaus for credit building, a loan management dashboard (CreditMap), automated expense tracking and subscription detection, and an AI-powered budgeting assistant (Dinero). The technology stack is built on Plaid for bank connectivity across 6,000+ institutions, Braintree for subscription billing, Dwolla for bank debits, Experian for credit data, and Method Financial for liability aggregation, with embedded 5G mobile service delivered through a white-label partnership with Gigs Wireless on AT&T's network. The company is headquartered in Brooklyn, NY (corporate address in Newark, Delaware) and serves 1M+ members with 11–50 employees.
Vola's business model is freemium consumer subscription: Basic Membership is free and provides access to core cash advances and basic expense tracking, while Premium Membership unlocks savings features, coupons, discounts, and management services at a monthly fee starting at $3.99. Incremental revenue is generated through revenue share on Vola Mobile plans ($14.99/month), referral fees on Premium conversions (up to 10 paid referrals per user), and affiliate commissions on third-party financial product offers. Distribution is entirely digital — iOS App Store, Google Play Store, paid acquisition on Meta/Google/TikTok, and a referral program — with no disclosed enterprise or B2B channel.
The company was founded in 2017, has disclosed cumulative funding of approximately $3.5M across a 2018 pre-seed and a 2020 seed led by NextView Ventures, and is privately held with Tushar Bagamane as CEO and co-founder Jose Bazbaz as CFO. In 2025 Vola expanded its product surface with three launches — CreditMap, Dinero AI budget builder, and Vola Mobile — signaling a deliberate pivot from a single-feature cash advance app toward a multi-product financial wellness platform.
Vola firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Vola
- Legal name
- Vola Inc.
- Website
- https://volafinance.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2017
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Vola is a US mobile-first consumer fintech offering interest-free cash advances (up to $500), credit building via rent reporting, expense tracking, and an AI budgeting assistant (Dinero) to 1M+ underbanked and budget-conscious users on a freemium subscription model.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Vola industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Consumer Fintech / Personal Finance App
- NAICS
- Software Publishers (5132)
- SIC
- Finance Services (6199)
- akta.pro primary industry
- A2A Payment Initiation Service Providers (PISPs) (FSAMAFAB)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- Instant Payment Scheme Connectivity & Processing (e.g., FedNow, SEPA Instant, Faster Payments) (FSAMAHAD)
Keywords
Where Vola is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Brooklyn
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Vola business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2C
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- Premium Membership Subscription: Monthly subscription fee for access to expanded services including savings features, coupons, discounts, and management services. Basic Membership is free with limited features. Subscription tiers determine access level and pricing.
- Vola Mobile Service: Revenue share from mobile plan subscriptions through Gigs wireless partnership. Users pay $14.99/month for mobile service, with Vola earning commission on each activated line.
- Referral Program Fees: Referral fees paid to existing members who refer new Premium subscribers. Vola earns when referred customers convert to paid subscriptions.
- Third-Party Financial Product Marketing: Vola generates offers for financial products from marketing partners and receives compensation when users elect to use or purchase third-party products and services through the platform.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Monthly | Free tier with basic cash advances and budgeting tools |
| Subscription | Monthly | Paid membership starting at $3.99/month |
| Subscription | Monthly | Mobile plan starting at $14.99/month |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels7 records
Vola product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Vola is a mobile-first fintech app that provides consumers instant cash advances of up to $500 with no credit check, no interest, and no late fees, paired with credit building tools (rent and utility reporting, CreditMap loan dashboard), an AI-powered budgeting assistant (Dinero), automatic expense tracking, and an embedded affordable 5G mobile plan (Vola Mobile). The platform operates on a freemium subscription model with a free Basic Membership and a paid Premium Membership starting at $3.99 per month, serving more than 1 million US subscribers.
Product overview
Vola is a financial wellness super-app offering a unified platform with multiple integrated modules. The core offering combines cash advances (up to $500), credit building tools (rent reporting and CreditMap), and free expense tracking with automatic categorization. The platform recently expanded with Vola Mobile for affordable 5G phone plans and AI Budget Builder (Dinero) for personalized financial insights. All features share a common dashboard architecture with Plaid-powered bank connectivity, enabling cross-functional features like low balance alerts that combine cash advance eligibility checking with spending analysis.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- CreditMap: Loan management dashboard that helps consumers navigate personal debt and track credit accounts including credit cards, loans, and other trade lines influencing credit score
- Vola Mobile
Products and services
- Cash Advance Instant cash advances up to $500 with no credit check, no interest, and no late fees; funds disbursed within seconds for eligible banks supporting real-time payments. Available to individual US consumers through the Vola mobile app after connecting a bank account via Plaid.
- Credit Builder
Quantifiable outcome
- Users save $125/month on average by switching to Vola Mobile ($14.99 vs $140 traditional carriers)
- +2 more outcomes
Companies that use Vola
Customer profileNamed customers4 records
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Vola technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration8 records
AI capability6 records
Feature6 records
Vola partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Six partnerships are on record, tiered core and supporting.
- PlaidcorePlaid Inc. provides secure bank account connection and transaction data retrieval. Vola uses Plaid to access users' bank account information including transaction history, balance data, and account details without handling bank credentials directly.
- BraintreecoreBraintree Payments Inc. processes subscription fee payments for Premium Memberships. Provides secure payment transmission infrastructure for recurring billing.
- DwollacoreDwolla Inc. handles electronic bank account debiting for subscription fees and cash advance repayments. Provides secure fund transfer capabilities.
- ExperiancoreExperian is one of the three major credit bureaus. Vola integrates with Experian for credit score access and rent/utility payment reporting to build user credit history.
- Gigs (Gigs Wireless, LLC)coreGigs provides white-label mobile carrier services embedded in the Vola app. Handles nationwide talk, text, and 5G data service on AT&T's network. Vola Mobile customers purchase plans through Gigs infrastructure.
- Forward Lending (Method)supportingForward Lending Inc. (branded as Method) retrieves liability account information for Vola's CreditMap feature. Provides secure transmission of loan and credit account data without requiring account credentials.
Scale indicators6 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Vola competitors and assessment
Company assessmentEmerging players
- Self (formerly Self Lender): Self specializes in credit building through credit-builder loans and rent reporting, directly overlapping Vola's Credit Builder and Rent Report modules while not competing on cash advances.
Broad incumbents
- Current: Current is a broader digital banking platform offering early payday, budgeting pods, and credit building — a wider incumbent that competes with Vola across multiple modules rather than focusing on advances alone.
Direct peers
- Even: Even pioneered earned-wage-access integrated with employer payroll, providing on-demand pay and budgeting — directly comparable to Vola's advance-plus-budgeting combo, particularly for the gig-worker and salaried underbanked segments Vola targets.
- Cleo: Cleo is an AI-driven personal finance app with cash advances, budgeting, and a subscription (Cleo Plus) — closely matching Vola's cash advance plus AI budget builder (Dinero) positioning.
- Dave: Dave is the most direct competitor — it offers small-dollar cash advances ($500 cap), budgeting tools, and a subscription model with a free tier, mirroring Vola's core proposition for underbanked consumers. Both operate as mobile-first fintechs with subscription monetization and a similar advance-size cap.
- MoneyLion: MoneyLion bundles cash advances (Instacash), credit building (Credit Builder Plus), mobile banking, and financial content in a subscription-plus-fee model — overlapping Vola's super-app strategy across advances, credit, and budgeting.
- Earnin: Earnin is a leading earned-wage-access app offering advances against earned wages, with budgeting, tipping-based monetization, and low-balance alerts — a near-direct analog to Vola's cash advance and Dinero AI features.
- Albert: Albert provides instant cash advances, automated savings, and budgeting through a Genius subscription tier — a direct functional analog to Vola's advance + Premium subscription + Dinero AI budgeting stack.
- Brigit: Brigit provides interest-free cash advances of up to $250 plus budgeting and credit-building features, directly overlapping Vola's cash advance and financial wellness offering for paycheck-to-paycheck consumers.
- Possible Finance: Possible Finance offers small-dollar cash advances up to $500 with credit-building features, directly competing for the same underbanked short-term-credit segment that Vola addresses.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Vola social profiles
Digital presenceVola financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Vola leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles2 records
Vola funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds3 records
Investors1 record
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Vola M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Vola
What does Vola do?
Vola is a mobile-first fintech app that provides consumers instant cash advances of up to $500 with no credit check, no interest, and no late fees, paired with credit building tools (rent and utility reporting, CreditMap loan dashboard), an AI-powered budgeting assistant (Dinero), automatic expense tracking, and an embedded affordable 5G mobile plan (Vola Mobile). The platform operates on a freemium subscription model with a free Basic Membership and a paid Premium Membership starting at $3.99 per month, serving more than 1 million US subscribers.
Is Vola a public or private company?
Vola is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Vola founded?
Vola was founded in 2017. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Vola based?
Vola is headquartered in Brooklyn, United States, in the North America region.
How does Vola make money?
Four revenue lines are on record. Premium Membership Subscription is the primary driver. The others are vola Mobile Service, referral Program Fees and third-Party Financial Product Marketing.
Who are Vola's main competitors?
Self (formerly Self Lender) is listed as an emerging player. Current is listed as a broad incumbent. Direct peers are Even, Cleo, Dave, MoneyLion, Earnin, Albert, Brigit and Possible Finance.
Does Vola have an API?
No public API is recorded for Vola.
What industry is Vola in?
Vola's product category is Consumer Fintech / Personal Finance App. Its primary akta.pro industry code is FSAMAFAB, A2A Payment Initiation Service Providers (PISPs), with a secondary code of FSAMAHAD, Instant Payment Scheme Connectivity & Processing (e.g., FedNow, SEPA Instant, Faster Payments). Its NAICS code is 5132 and its SIC code is 6199.