Philly native Mike Petrakis built PowerPay, a fintech company for people who think banks are too slow.
Today, The Philadelphia Inquirer published a feature on Mike Petrakis and PowerPay, offering an independent look at how the company has grown — and how its lending platform was designed to scale with accountability.
Written by Inquirer business columnist Joseph N. DiStefano, the article moves past surface-level growth metrics to examine the operating choices behind PowerPay’s model. It traces the company’s path from early home improvement financing to a fully owned, proprietary fintech platform supporting home services, healthcare, and emerging financial products.
Rather than framing speed and responsibility as tradeoffs, the piece shows how PowerPay has built both into the foundation of the business. Real-time decisioning is paired with proprietary underwriting, securitization expertise, and integrated insurance capabilities. At the same time, the platform continues to rely on live, human support — reflecting a view of lending as a long-term relationship, not a one-time transaction.
The article also highlights where PowerPay stands today, including the scale of the platform and the infrastructure supporting it, as the company continues to expand into new lending categories and embedded payment experiences.
We encourage you to read the full feature in The Philadelphia Inquirer for the complete perspective: https://www.inquirer.com/business/powerpay-fintech-company-philadelphia-mike-petrakis-20260209.html
You can find more of Joseph N. DiStefano’s reporting here: https://www.inquirer.com/author/distefano_joseph_n/