Mos: Banking Designed to Empower Students

“How do you build a for profit company to change the world?” That’s the question Amira Yahyaoui asked herself when she began to build Mos, a challenger bank that is on a mission to tear down all financial barriers to opportunity.

Her belief that technology can be a powerful tool for social change has roots in her experience as a young activist and blogger in her native Tunisia during the Arab Spring. As the dictatorship came to an end, she started Al Bawsala, an NGO that leveraged technology for civic engagement—the organization's tools empowered millions of Tunisians to “basically write their constitution and decide on their country and what they wanted to see in it,” Yahyaoui explains.

In 2017, Yahyaoui came to the United States with the same vision to empower everyday people. She started Mos with the data and the innate understanding that access to higher education changes people’s lives. Setting up young people with the tools for financial success—by supporting their efforts to pay for higher education—can have an exponential positive impact on their financial future. Initially, Mos connected students with financial aid opportunities, opening up more than $160 billion in financial aid to their community of over 400,000 students. In late 2021, Yahyaoui pivoted to expand the platform to become a challenger bank, continuing Mos’ mission to set up young people with financial success.

“Building a mission-driven company means you truly believe that you can build a successful business without screwing up the world,” Yahyaoui explains.