Thu | Mar 28, 2024

Angel Rich-Jones makes it big in financial literacy

Published:Sunday | January 1, 2023 | 12:05 AMKrysta Anderson/Staff Reporter
Covered in bentonite clay, Rich-Jones enjoys a day of rafting.
Covered in bentonite clay, Rich-Jones enjoys a day of rafting.
Rich-Jones indulged in a scrumptious meal in the radiant sunshine.
Rich-Jones indulged in a scrumptious meal in the radiant sunshine.
Meet entrepreneur, Angel Rich-Jones.
Meet entrepreneur, Angel Rich-Jones.
Angel and her husband, Karl Jones, basking in the bliss of their honeymoon in Montego Bay.
Angel and her husband, Karl Jones, basking in the bliss of their honeymoon in Montego Bay.
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When one hears the phrase financial literacy, certain words like income, interest, budget, assets, credit, and debt come to mind. While the math may not be ‘mathing’ like it should for many, it’s good to have a grasp of these technical terms in order to know and grow your finances. That’s where people like Angel Rich-Jones come in. Big on financial literacy, the entrepreneur has made it her business to educate others on the subject matter through gaming technology. The Sunday Gleaner had a heart-to-heart with the entrepreneur while on her honeymoon in Montego Bay, Jamaica.

She grew up in the first black community in the US, Kingman Park, in Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, as a chubby and highly intelligent child, with bright aspirations of becoming an entrepreneur.

“I was always considered smart, nice, and giving. I was a chubby kid that loved puzzles, botany, and entrepreneurship. I dreamed of one day being successful enough to go on an extended vacation to Jamaica. I never imagined it would be my honeymoon or that I would do it in a bikini,” she told us.

Angel Rich-Jones is no stranger to the finance world. In fact, she started her first company when she was 11 years old. “That year, I participated in the invention convention. And crazy enough, my idea was to integrate technology into students’ desks so they could interact with the desk as a computer screen and print their work from the desk. I never thought I would actually own a tech company. My love for technology intensified after becoming a data scientist,” she explained.

In 2013, she and her business partner started The Wealth Factory, a business that has trekked an interesting journey of peaks and valleys, “After I learned that people were so addicted to mobile games that they were walking head first into traffic, I said, ‘My God, imagine if they learned something’. That’s when I decided to reverse-engineer the Fair Isaac credit reporting system and apply game mechanics to it.”

As the founder of Black Tech Matters and Fintech, Rich-Jones is responsible for the creation of CreditRich, an artificial intelligence app that is geared at improving your credit score. Partnering with credit report agency Experian puts her down in the history books as she is the first black woman to achieve an institutional collaboration of such epic proportions.

“Shortly after the wedding in February, we found out that CreditRich, an app that rounds up users’ spare change to help them pay their bills intelligently and raise credit scores effectively, formed a partnership with VISA to launch the first ever black woman-owned neo-bank, bringing the company valuation to over $1.5 billion UDS. The company is launching its own Visa Signature debit and credit card to offer account holders unique, equitable banking and interest rates,” she explained further.

So what inspired her to take this empowering route of freeing others from financial burdens and constraints? Her own journey.

She loved learning new things and was able to improve on her writing and speaking skills from high school. By the time she was in college, she began to focus on perfecting those skills as a straight A scholar, holding leadership positions in clubs. She even wrote and directed a film, won case competitions, and created profitable businesses. But she recalled a time swimming in a sea of college debt beyond graduation.

Being teased about her weight as a child was also something that Rich-Jones had to grapple with. So when she moved to Beijing for work, she set out on a health and fitness goal, losing 100 pounds during her three-month internship with the Republic of China. “I became the first black person and woman to, within their foreign security, help to assist with the 2007 Olympics. That’s where I discovered healthier eating patterns,” she added.

Rich-Jones went on to get her financial start as a global market research analyst for Prudential Financial. With her eyes on the prize, she dreamed of one day partnering with major financial institutions, telecommunications companies, and governments, with the goal of improving credit scores in cost -effective ways.

She plans to further diversify the way in which people could go about paying fines, exchanging funds, and making donations with innovative solutions through the app. “The app is set to launch during Black History Month of 2023 in partnership with VISA and Experian, to name a few,” she added.

Noting that the biggest stressor on Earth is money, the entrepreneur explained that it is important to be able to be lingual and functional in financial literacy. If she can help by providing the necessary tools, then that is a difference she is proud to make in this world.

Already on this path of greatness, she has been named by Forbes Magazine as the next Steve Jobs. This is a title that she dubs both accurate and honourable. “I think we are taught a false lesson to keep your head down and climb the ladder. Instead, you should develop the skills and intelligence to be confident enough to aim straight for the top because the bottom is overcrowded. You must have guts and grit,” she asserted.

And if Forbes wasn’t enough, her husband, Karl, illuminated more on the light that is his wife. “I realised unicorns are real. A person shouldn’t have this much creativity, compassion, and pride, but somehow you have that in addition to being fun, intelligent, God-fearing and refined,” he shared in his vows.

The married couple, who are familiar with the island, enjoyed a beautiful honeymoon at Half Moon Resort in Rose Hall, St James. The dynamic duo described the hotel as the diamond of the Caribbean. “ We loved every second of our honeymoon and will forever have a special place in our hearts for Jamaica.”

krysta.anderson@gleanerjm.com