Zolve Azpire: Building Credit Access for a Global, Underserved Audience

Zolve started with a bold vision — to become a global neobank that could simplify banking for Indian immigrants moving to the United States.

With a strong focus on students and working professionals, the platform offered U.S.-based banking products to people even before they boarded their flight.

The opportunity was clear, but so were the limitations.

Digital acquisition was challenging due to the narrow and niche nature of the audience — primarily F1 visa students and H1B/L1 working professionals — who numbered around 80,000–250,000 annually.

Many working professionals already had financial onboarding support from employers, and once in the U.S., could access credit cards through traditional providers.

That’s when Zolve Azpire was born.

Azpire: A Credit Builder Card Designed for Everyone

Zolve Azpire is a secured credit card with a simple premise: you use your own deposited funds as your credit limit. It’s built to help users establish or rebuild credit scores, without risk, fees, or the fear of falling into debt.

Azpire had no subscription fees, no application fees, no minimum deposit, no APR, no late fees, no SSN requirement, and no credit checks. It operated purely on interchange revenue — and served as a gateway product to onboard users into the Zolve ecosystem.

Why this mattered:

In the U.S., your credit score isn't just about loans. It can affect your interest rates, insurance premiums, even job applications. And for newcomers with no credit history, the system was almost impossible to break into.

With Azpire, users could:

Build credit responsibly using their own funds
Avoid overspending
Start their U.S. financial journey with confidence
Qualify later for more advanced Zolve products

Growth Strategy: Scaling in a Niche Market

Given the niche audience and the challenges of high CAC in digital channels, we pivoted toward more efficient, trust-based acquisition strategies:

Affiliate programs with Indian visa consultants, study-abroad counselors, and relocation services
Partnerships with visa centers and universities that touched the user at key decision points
A referral engine designed to compound trust-led growth, especially effective in student networks

These channels not only brought high-intent users but did so at a far more sustainable CAC than paid media could offer in this market.

User Personas

Azpire was built for a wide spectrum of underserved segments who struggle with building or repairing credit in the U.S.

Our target audience spanned both immigrant and native populations.

Key Personas:

1. International immigrants (SSN-less):

Students and working professionals from India and Mexico
Over 10 million in our SAM (Serviceable Addressable Market)
Also included dependents entering on L2, H4, and H2B visas who are not eligible for mainstream credit cards

2. Native U.S. residents:

New to Credit (NTC): Individuals with no prior credit history
Credit repair seekers: Users looking to rebuild damaged credit
Gig economy workers: An audience of 60M+, often underserved by traditional banks
Debit card loyalists: Cautious users who avoid credit due to spending concerns

Azpire’s core proposition — build credit using your own money with no hidden fees or credit checks — aligned perfectly with these personas.

Marketing Mix

Operating from India and targeting U.S. consumers came with two main challenges — execution friction and attribution gaps in offline channels. After detailed competitor benchmarking and feasibility mapping, we locked in the following digital-first marketing mix:

ChannelAllocation

Affiliate and ad networks (e.g., Rakuten, NerdWallet, PennyHoarder, WalletHub): 30%

Paid media (Google, Facebook, TikTok, Taboola, Reddit)30%

Influencer marketing (YouTube, TikTok): 20%

Community marketing (Reddit, Facebook groups): 10%

Email and direct mail (Experian audience sets): 10%

This mix gave us diversified acquisition touchpoints while keeping CAC and attribution trackable.

Cold-Warm-Hot Strategy

Our initial mistake was treating all traffic the same — sending them directly to a product-heavy landing page.

That failed for 4 reasons:

No category education for credit builder cards
No emotional framing of the problem
Felt pushy for cold users
No user segmentation based on awareness stage

So we shifted to a 3-tiered Cold-Warm-Hot funnel.

Cold Audiences

Goal: Build problem awareness about credit scores
Content Types:

Real stories of credit score crashes and recoveries
How economic downturns affect credit
Emotional and stat-based ads:
- “47% of employers check your credit score before hiring”
- “52% of credit defaults happen due to health emergencies”
Visual breakdowns of the cost of bad credit

Warm Audiences

Goal: Introduce the concept of credit builder cards
Content Types:

Explainer videos: “What is a secured credit card?”
Comparison ads: Credit card vs secured card vs Azpire
Blog posts highlighting use cases (e.g., gig workers, international students)

Hot Audiences

Goal: Show why Azpire is the best credit builder card
Content Types:

Feature-heavy videos
UGC testimonials
Ad copy with zero fees, no APR, and 1-click approval
Retargeting with limited-time offers and simplified onboarding

Warm Segment

Once we built problem awareness, the next step was to educate users about the solution — secured credit cards.

This stage targeted users who knew their credit score was important but didn’t know how to improve it or what tools to use.

What We Did:

At this stage, our marketing collaterals were crafted to position secured credit cards — and especially Azpire — as the smartest path to credit building. The content focused on:

Why a secured credit card is the gateway to good credit:
Explained how secured credit cards help establish or rebuild credit safely using your own money as collateral. We tackled myths like "secured cards are risky" and showed how they can actually prevent overspending.
Secured vs debit vs unsecured credit cards:
Through infographics, explainers, and short videos, we highlighted the advantages of secured credit cards over traditional debit and unsecured cards — especially for those with no credit history or low scores.
What to look for before choosing a secured card:
Checklists and educational content guided users through important considerations:
- Hidden fees
- APR traps
- SSN requirements
- Credit reporting practices
  This set the stage for Azpire to shine as a no-fee, no-SSN, no-credit-check alternative.
Why Azpire is different (and better):
Unlike most players, Azpire had:
- $0 annual fee
- No minimum deposit
- Instant approval without SSN
- Zero APR and zero late fees
- Credit bureau reporting to help users build credit fast

Hot Segment

At the bottom of the funnel, the audience is fully problem-aware and solution-aware. They’re actively comparing options — which is why this stage is all about why Zolve Azpire is the best choice.

What We Did:

This segment’s goal was to convert interest into action. Our creatives and landing pages focused on:

What is Zolve Azpire?
Explained clearly how Azpire works — a secured credit card with no SSN, no credit check, no minimum deposit, and no hidden fees. All you need is your own money to start building or repairing your credit.
Competitor Comparison:
We broke down comparisons with traditional secured cards from major banks and fintechs like Chime, Discover, and Capital One. The focus:
- Azpire has zero fees, no credit check, and instant approval
- Competitors often require an SSN, credit inquiry, or charge hidden fees
Reviews and Testimonials:
Showcased real user stories, especially from immigrants, gig workers, and NTC users who found Azpire to be the most accessible and transparent solution. Social proof was a strong conversion lever.
FAQs:
Addressed key objections around:
- “What happens if I miss a payment?”
- “How does this build my credit score?”
- “Is my money safe?”
  The FAQ section also reinforced trust, highlighting security protocols, credit bureau reporting, and ease of use.

Execution of Strategy

To activate our Cold–Warm–Hot funnel strategy, we implemented a multi-layered approach that responded to user behavior in real time.

Dynamic Funnel Routing:
Users were guided to one of the three landing pages based on their interactions with our ads, videos, or earlier page visits. This behavioral routing helped assess their intent and place them in the right awareness tier.
Smart Remarketing Flows:
Users who landed on the Cold pages (credit score awareness) were tagged via cookies and nudged back through Warm pages (education on secured credit cards). This layered approach increased progression down the funnel without being aggressive.
Video-Led Intent Capture:
We tested swapping traditional landing pages with video-first pages. For example, a 90-second explainer on how secured cards build credit replaced the Warm landing page. By measuring average watch time, we identified warm leads and routed them deeper into the funnel automatically.

Common Caveats and Our Take:

Will driving traffic to the Credit Tracker page create leakage?
Surprisingly, no. Our Credit Tracker served as a trust-building tool. It also nudged users further down the funnel, often acting as a starting point rather than a detour.
Do we always need remarketing to drive movement across tiers?
Not at all. Each page was embedded with contextual hotlinks, allowing users to naturally navigate from Cold to Warm to Hot at their own pace — creating a frictionless funnel experience.
What about ad creatives?
Since Cold and Warm pages didn’t have strong product pitches, we relied on highly click-worthy, curiosity-driven creatives. Think stats, stories, and punchy pain points — no brand logos, no product names.

Positioning Test

We wanted to test different positioning angles across personas — without burning dev bandwidth. So we hacked a lightweight personalization engine using Google Sheets.

Here’s how it worked:

A Google Sheet powered the copy on the Hot landing page — specifically the above-the-fold headline and value prop.
Using a simple query parameter in the URL, we could change the message shown to users on the fly — depending on the audience segment or campaign.
This allowed us to test hypotheses like:
→ “Does ‘No SSN Required’ resonate more with L2 visa dependents?”
→ “Does ‘Rebuild Credit After Default’ convert better for native gig workers?”

This helped us move fast, run A/B tests across headlines, and iterate positioning without touching code or delaying GTM.

Positioning in Action

The positioning tests gave us rich insights into what resonated with different segments. With those learnings, we launched our digital campaigns across a mix of intent-driven and affinity-based channels.

We kicked off with Search Ads, targeting users actively looking for credit builder products. These were high-intent audiences, often searching with queries like “best secured credit card” or “how to build credit without SSN.”

Next, we moved to YouTube video ads, placing our content on videos around credit repair, credit card myths, and personal finance advice. The goal was to catch people already curious about the topic and offer them something better.

For affinity and custom audiences, we zeroed in on:

Gig workers, who often struggled with thin credit files
Immigrants, especially from India and Mexico, trying to build financial roots in the U.S.
Custom audiences, built by targeting competitor keywords and websites like Chime, Credit Sesame, and others

The ads led to landing pages tailored for comparison, clearly explaining how Azpire stacked up against popular alternatives in terms of flexibility, fees, and credit score impact.

👉 Here’s the comparison page (https://zolve.com/azpire/credit-builder-card/comparison) that helped us seal the deal with many.

This mix of intent + storytelling + trust-building gave us a sharper funnel and helped position Azpire not just as another secured credit card, but as a genuinely better solution designed for overlooked users.

Tackling Fraud

In the final stretch before Azpire’s launch, we kicked off a waitlist campaign to build buzz and collect early sign-ups. These efforts were initially limited to Zolve’s existing user base—specifically those we couldn’t previously onboard due to low Indian credit scores or being from non-India geographies.

Once the product launched, we moved swiftly into paid digital campaigns across Google and Facebook, organic posts on Reddit, and even some cold emailing through third-party databases targeting users with low credit scores in the U.S.

Within days, we saw a massive spike in traffic—sign-ups, profiles, and account creations were growing so fast, we thought the product had gone viral.

But that excitement didn’t last.

We soon discovered we’d been hit by a fraud ring. ACH withdrawals skyrocketed to over 70%, forcing us to immediately cap them at 15%.

In the following weeks, we tightened security across the funnel: integrating tools like Sardine, Socure, and Plaid, and layering in checks like email vintage analysis and stricter ACH limits to weed out fraudulent users.

While these interventions were necessary, they came at a cost—conversion rates dropped and KYC costs ballooned.

More importantly, we realized that ACH reversals were just the beginning. If fraudsters remained in the system, chargeback fraud would follow. So we restructured our approach entirely.

Marketing Meets Risk

To stay ahead of fraud without killing acquisition, we built a real-time feedback loop between the marketing and fraud teams. Our internal user ID was passed as a custom dimension in GA, enabling campaign-level optimizations based on user risk profiles. Fraud learnings were fed back into media channels and audience segmentation to reduce exposure.

Over time, the situation stabilized—but this episode highlighted a deep structural issue.

In the U.S., ACH fraud is systemic. Due to FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act) limitations, fraud history can’t be freely shared across institutions, making it harder to flag repeat offenders.

This loophole keeps the door open for fraud rings to move from one product to another unchecked.

That’s why, with Azpire, fraud detection isn’t just a compliance task—it’s a growth lever.

To build a scalable product, fraud costs have to be built into CAC, and marketing must operate in lockstep with fraud ops to strike the delicate balance between reach and risk.