Watch here as our CMO and Head of Product, Kate Woska, gives a walkthrough of what it’s like for a resident to use Circa’s app to pay their rent.

The walkthrough will show some of our key features:

Flexible Payment Plans and Scheduling

Various Payment Methods

Credit Reporting

Rent Payment History

After a competitive application process, we are one of 10 companies selected for the inaugural cohort of the Roux Institute TechStars Accelerator in Portland, Maine. Techstars is a global network of founders, corporate partners, and experienced mentors that helps founding teams succeed. This accelerator is a collaboration between Techstars and the Roux Institute at Northeastern University.

Circa has come a long way. We offer a powerful, proven combination of features including flexible rent payments, reporting to the credit bureaus, friendly messaging to residents, and simplified arrears planning. Circa has a positive impact for our residents, their financial security, and their peace of mind. Circa gives properties cost-saving efficiencies that improve their bottom line. True to our mission, we are strengthening communities through payment innovation!

Many things have changed in the last 18 months. Whether from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic or the growing call for equality, the way we perceive the world around us is forever changed. We have become more resilient in the face of adversity and many businesses have made permanent changes.

One industry I keep mulling over is the housing rental market. A roof over one’s head is rather one of the essentials. Where we live fundamentally means something to us, practically and emotionally. Yet for years, rental housing has been struggled to meet renters where they are. Issues including for-profit mentality, unforgiving power dynamics, and a lack of innovation often stand in the way of a more humane approach to housing that all people deserve.

Over the past few months, our team has successfully moved from planning to production. As you’ve noticed, we also made a big move from EppoPay to Circa.

From building a fully functional product to laying a scalable internal foundation to implementing a modern consumer brand, we’ve been working hard. With a lean mindset supercharged with scrappy startup creativity, our potential for impact and success has never been stronger.

Our team is guided by one unified mission: To build stronger communities through payment innovation. We do this by creating solutions that promote financial confidence and keep people in their homes. The link between strong households and strong communities is undeniable, and the security of home and the connection to community has never been more important. Setting aside this year’s many trials, houselessness (no longer called homeless – language matters) is an unnecessary evil in a society as wealthy and evolved as ours. But rather than dwell on what should be, our team is hard at work building impact-driven solutions and the business infrastructure to sustain them.

The concept of Circa was born over a year ago. We did not anticipate a pandemic, but we saw a need for inclusion and equity. We saw a need to give people more control over their financial lives - to be able to pay important bills, when they want, how they want. With almost half of Americans unable to sustain a $400 financial shock, we recognized that residents need better solutions.

In 2020, amidst a financial and health crisis, residents are increasingly in need of dignity and respect, driving property owners to recognize that the traditional rent collection model must change. Before this year, many people in America needed support, but now that need has become a requirement that property managers cannot ignore. With this motivation to shift a centuries-old industry-standard, property managers are more receptive to meeting residents' needs. That's why we built Circa. Our mission - to empower people by giving them the tools to live financially resilient lives - is needed more today than ever before. Now is the time!

This is a moment of profound grief that requires intense reflection. At EppoPay, we grieve for every Black and Brown life that has been taken due to senseless violence and racism. We also grieve for the pervasive damage that systemic racism has done to our Black communities. Racism is toxic; when it poisons some of us, it poisons all of us. On behalf of the entire EppoPay team, I am proud to unequivocally state that Black Lives Matter, today and every day.

It turns out that stable housing is one of the most important predictors of almost everything else: financial, physical and mental health. It predicts likelihood of getting or keeping a job and is the foundation of our communities. At its core, the Circa landlord/renter product transforms the rent-collection model. The financial structure of the product is good for both landlords and renters. The relationship and two-way communication is central to the concept. And payment smoothing allows renters to have more payment flexibility in response to increasing income volatility. Circa does not solve our deeper economic problems. But, the solutions we offer are needed now more than ever.

In this stay-at-home-world, travel has stopped, and yet the noise of the media streams by at break-neck speed. It's April and I want to send warmth and love. My message is simple. Stay well, reach out to those you love or anyone in need of support. And, know that the EppoPay team understands that there is no better time than now to be building a system to help people pay their bills.

It’s been a tough month all around the world. Tensions are high as the news of Covid-19 and economic risk is updated in an unending stream. Like others, I think about my friends and family. I also think and worry about most Americans who can’t sustain a financial shock. For our families and EppoPay, it’s time to hunker down. Though it’s hard to concentrate with the cacophony of news, it’s even more important. Hunkering down for us means work - the hard work of building EppoPay. What does that mean? We’re tackling the details like building wireframes, use-cases, back-end tech, code, copy and communications. Less talk, more work.

The EppoPay team is focused: build, lock in clients and get it right.

Heman has deployed the team - they are working on strategy, design, configuration, code and UX.

Leslie is creating the marketing content to support the Landlord and Tenant experience.

We are all creating regular communications that will inform tenants

The project plan is in place and we are executing!

At EppoPay, we have much to be happy about. We are thrilled to announce that we are closing our first round of seed funding. 🎉The interest level is motivating - we were oversubscribed - 26% over our goal! A special thanks and very warm welcome to those who invested - we are honored to have you on board. And, for those who did not invest this round, there will be a next time to become part of the EppoPay family. With the first shot of capital, EppoPay is on its way to grow, influence and make a difference in the world. We are committed to our mission and will continue to communicate as we go.

November was another exciting month in the life of EppoPay™. I continued to immerse myself in research; the history of home ownership and renters, the influence of technology in the field and the realities of income volatility in America. Last month I mentioned that EppoPay™ was invited to a Robin Hood-funded event sponsored by The Furman Center of NYU to develop a pilot for the City of NY. We were invited, we presented EppoPay™ and we felt the love. It was a convening of a powerful group; academics, policy experts, City officials and us! We wowed the group with EppoPay™ smoothing capabilities and we learned some important lessons which will help guide us as we enter the market place. More to come re ongoing meetings with the City of NY.

In addition to the profit story, EppoPay resonates as a social good, particularly for those supporting lower income tenants. That motivates us. Last week Facebook joined Apple and Google in an effort to combat the San Francisco housing crisis. They collectively pledged $4.5B to ease the housing shortage. Actually, the “housing crisis” is throughout the country and is caused by a host of trends, including low supply, aging structures, affordability, inclusion and community. We need policy and strategies to support the underserved. EppoPay’s innovative payment smoothing system is getting attention. We have been invited to join the housing crisis discussion with the City of New York. Our system will make a difference for cost-burdened tenants living in metro centers across the country. We're on it!

The reason Heman and I created EppoPay is because we saw a need. People don’t always have money on hand to make their next payment. EppoPay is part of the solution to a very big social problem. By aligning payments with income, we will help millions of real Americans make ends meet.

We are one month closer to launching our first EppoPay product and we can’t go fast enough! There is plenty of activity in the fintech space and many companies addressing the renters market. The New York Times this week illustrated fintech startups finding ways to help tenants spread out the cost of the security deposits with a new insurance product (NYT Article on Security Deposits). We agree that there is an opportunity in the rental market; the EppoPay model is a win for the landlord and the tenant.

We heard the need for a better way to pay monthly bills. We’ve seen the daily collections reports filled with “insufficient funds” notices and reviewed countless phone calls with customers (“...don’t cancel my coverage, I just need a little more time, the funds will be in my account next week…”). We listened to real people with real problems.  

EppoPay is part of the solution to a very big social problem: helping Americans make ends meet.  EppoPay can’t make the big monthly bills go away, but we can make the payments more flexible and better align them with income. For so many renters, that’s a big deal!