Playing His Cards Right: Kalpesh G. Kapadia M.S. '97
When he was 22 years old, Kalpesh G. Kapadia immigrated to the United States from Bombay, India. A commuter student who lived in Kearny, Kapadia attended NJIT on a full scholarship, with cooperative work at the pharmaceutical company Schering-Plough. His scholarship also entailed teaching students at Eastside High in Tenafly about computers. However, like many other international students, he struggled to establish his credit profile. Thus, the inspiration to offer a means by which international students can obtain and build credit was derived from his own personal experience with the credit system in the U.S.
“I came here to study in 1995 fresh from India and I had trouble getting access to loans and credit in the U.S., and many of my family members and friends over the years have come and they have faced similar problems,” Kapadia recalled. “The population has gone up tenfold of students coming from overseas, particularly at a university like NJIT, and they all faced the same problem. There were three regulations that were passed over the years that made it increasingly harder for people to get access. I thought the system was broken and was leaving out a lot of good people as it was designed and I wanted to change that, so that’s why I started the company.”
Gateway to Credit
That company is Deserve, Inc., of which Kapadia is the founder, chief executive officer and director. Between 50,000 and 100,000 Deserve MasterCards have been issued to date by the company, with almost 500 students at NJIT who now own a card. International students must be 18 years or older; neither a prior credit history nor a Social Security number are required.
Deserve offers two products that it is launching for NJIT: The Edu credit card for students and the Pro credit card for alumni. Both the Edu and Pro cards have no annual fee. The Edu card provides a sign-on bonus for a one-year subscription to Amazon Prime Student and the credit limit rate is $500-$5,000. The Pro card has no foreign transactions fee and offers 1% cash back on all purchases, 2% cash back on restaurant and food delivery such as Uber Eats or DoorDash, and 3% cash back on travel and entertainment that includes subscriptions to Netflix, Spotify and Fandango. And, with a $1,000 spend on the Pro Card in the first 90 days, cardholders will receive a one-year membership to the Priority Pass Global Airport Lounge Network.
Alumni and students can show their NJIT pride (while building their credit histories) with the NJIT Deserve Card. The university or Alumni Association will benefit from each NJIT Deserve Credit Card issued.
Empowerment Through Higher Education
Kapadia’s career spans 20+ years in the U.S. and Asia, primarily in technology and finance. Prior to co-founding Deserve Inc., he was one of the foremost analyst/investors in Wall Street’s tech sector. In 2004, he was ranked the No. 1 analyst in the U.S. across all sectors by the Wall Street Journal. One year later, he founded Equanum Capital and successfully managed it through 2012. In 2007 and 2009, Equanum Funds were one of the best-managed global equity funds in Barrons.com and Asiahedge rankings. In addition to his M.S. in industrial engineering and operations research from NJIT, Kapadia earned an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University, where he is a member of its Alumni Board and a proud member of the W.L. Mellon Society.
His personal and charitable interests focus on empowerment and upliftment through higher education. He is a member/supporter of organizations such as the Cato Institute, Santa Fe Institute, Foundation for Excellence and the American Himalayan Foundation. He also is a member of the Bay Area chapters of the Commonwealth Club and the Churchill Club.
Has his NJIT degree helped him in his career?
“Tremendously. It gave me a full scholarship when I came here for a master’s in engineering, which was at the time $10,000 a semester: $5,000 in tuition and $5,000 in living expenses,” Kapadia said. “I got three job offers: one was from Schering-Plough Corporation, one was from Lucent, and one was from Sara Lee Corporation. I had my full-time job, and I saved up and I went to business school after that. So it gave me a great launching pad.”
For more information about the NJIT Pro and Edu Credit Cards, visit deserve.com/NJIT.