Purpose Payment: Transforming transactions for a cause

Purpose Payment: Transforming transactions for a cause

What happens when a group of innovative students from the University of Georgia tackle a technology challenge to help small businesses manage credit card fees that impact profits and costs for consumers? They created Purpose Payment, a pay-by-bank app that rewards users, supports local merchants and benefits UGA athletics.

Linzey Nguyen and Saniya Bedi, students in the management information systems program, led the challenge for the team of 14 students under the guidance of Robert Trotter, director of the FinTech program at UGA's Terry College of Business in Athens, Georgia.

A vision for change: From classroom to real-world impact

The creation of Purpose Payment started in Trotter's fintech certificate program. Nguyen, a fourth-year MIS major with an emphasis in data analytics, explains the motivation behind Purpose Payment.

"We recognized merchants pay high fees on credit card transactions, and nonprofits and Georgia Athletics aren't receiving steady revenue. So we developed Purpose Payment to offer an alternative, positive solution to fix those problems and appeal to businesses and their customers," she says.

The app connects users' bank accounts directly to merchants' bank accounts, bypassing credit card fees and allowing those savings to go to causes that matter to the users.

"We created the idea, reached out to app developers and crafted a concise business case and launch plan," Nguyen recalls. Kaveri Channappa, a third-year MIS major, joined the project during the summer of 2025, leading the launch strategy.