This week, CellPay launched ZivoMoney, a Visa prepaid card you buy with cash and add to Apple Pay or Google Pay the same day. Berkeley Payment Solutions is the platform behind it.
The problem it solves is real and overdue. Nearly 25 million U.S. households are unbanked or underbanked. Plenty of them earn in cash and still get locked out of online checkout and tap-to-pay, not for lack of money, but because the system was never built around how they get paid.
ZivoMoney closes that gap.
Pay cash at a participating retailer, add the card to your phone, and spend anywhere Visa debit is accepted in the U.S., in minutes rather than days.
What the card does
- Buy it with cash. No bank account and no credit check.
- Add it to Apple Pay or Google Pay and pay in store or online the same day.
- Single load up to $999.99, non-reloadable, with no ATM withdrawals.
- Use it anywhere Visa debit cards are accepted in the United States.
Berkeley's role
CellPay has spent a decade in the cash economy, moving more than $1 billion for close to six million people across 1,000-plus retail locations. They knew exactly who they were building for.
Our job was to turn that into a live, compliant card program quickly, and to run the rails underneath it so the card simply works.
"CellPay knew exactly who they were serving," said Lawrence Tepperman, CEO of Berkeley Payment Solutions. "Our job was to turn that into a live card program fast, and to stand behind the rails so it just works."
Not just a card, a platform
ZivoMoney also ships with an API. Any retailer, marketplace, or fintech can embed wallet-ready prepaid cards for their own customers without building a card program from scratch. That is the part we find most compelling. The same rails that launched ZivoMoney are open to any business that wants to put a card in its customers' hands, without stitching together separate issuers, processors, compliance vendors, and fulfillment houses to do it.
The ZivoMoney Single Load Visa Prepaid Card is issued by Sunrise Banks, N.A., Member FDIC, pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. Program management is provided by Berkeley Payment Solutions. Fees vary by participating retailer and are disclosed before purchase; the full schedule is available at zivomoney.com.
Read the full press release here.
