Breaking Barriers Raul Lomeli on Empowering Immigrant Communities with Welcome Tech

Episode Overview

Raul Lomeli-Azoubel, co-founder and Chief Community Officer of Welcome Tech, is a passionate advocate for immigrant empowerment and integration. Born to Mexican migrant farmworkers, Lomeli-Azoubel’s journey embodies the challenges and opportunities faced by many immigrant families. His U.S. birth, a result of his family’s seasonal farm work, provided him with access to education and opportunities that his older siblings, born in Mexico, did not have. This disparity ignited his lifelong mission to create systems that support immigrant communities and ensure equal opportunities for all​. Over the past two decades, Raul has leveraged his expertise and entrepreneurial spirit to co-found ventures like SABER PODER and Welcome Tech, both aimed at addressing systemic barriers for immigrants. His work includes creating accessible platforms that provide financial literacy, healthcare services, and community integration tools. Through Welcome Tech, Lomeli-Azoubel has helped build a digital ecosystem likened to a “digital Ellis Island,” offering services to over 4 million users. His efforts have garnered recognition, including the prestigious Hotly Award, highlighting his impactful contributions to immigrant communities.

Under Raul’s leadership, Welcome Tech has become a pioneer in leveraging technology to address practical challenges immigrants face, from opening bank accounts to accessing healthcare and education. The platform’s success lies in its innovative approach, combining digital solutions with culturally relevant outreach. Lomeli-Azoubel’s commitment to equitable access for immigrants has not only transformed lives but has also highlighted the economic contributions and untapped potential within immigrant communities. His vision continues to drive impactful solutions for those navigating the complexities of a new country​

Episode Transcript

Raul Lomeli-Azoubel: When it comes to healthcare, that is perhaps the most important area. I know that financial services can provide the stability for them to be able to grow their credit and be able to access other products and services. But healthcare can really throw, you know, a curveball to a family that is, you know, is doing well.

Kevin Rosenquist: Hey there. Welcome to Pay Pod, where we bring you conversations with the trailblazers shaping the future of payments and fintech. My name is Kevin Rosenquist . Thanks for listening. Immigration is a topic that is much debated in this country. It often evokes passion in people and can lead to incendiary rhetoric. But what is too often overlooked is the arduous journey of the immigrants themselves. I am not referring to their physical journey, although we know that can be arduous as well. I’m talking about what they do when they get here. How do they acclimate to the American way of life? Raul Lomeli along with his business partner, founded Welcome Tech in 2010 to help immigrants become knowledgeable and comfortable with living in the US. They help with setting up bank accounts, getting insurance, finding a job, getting health care, and many other aspects of life most Americans hardly have to consider, as these things are very woven into the fabric of our society. Raul and I discuss how welcome tech is able to achieve all of this, as well as what needs to happen in order to change the narrative surrounding immigration in this country. I’m really excited for you to hear this interview, so please welcome Raul Lomeli. Welcome Tech was was born in early 2020 as a way for immigrant communities to connect to opportunity. Immigration has obviously been a topic of discussion for many years. It’s gotten more incendiary in the past eight years or so. There’s a lot of Redick rhetoric out there, down to accusations of eating cats for some reason. Is the need for a platform like welcome tech even more vital now than when? Even when you started.

Raul Lomeli-Azoubel: Hey, Kevin. You would. You would think that in today’s world, we would actually appreciate the opportunity to inject vitality to any one economy.  But,  nevertheless, the polarization that not just this country, but worldwide it’s going through, makes it sometimes difficult for us to look at something in a rational way, in a way that we can actually have a conversation and see what we can improve and where do we need to focus? And unfortunately,  you know, immigration is a topic that is all about security and not so much about integration and the importance of it.

Kevin Rosenquist: Yeah. And I feel like that’s that that’s just,  it’s fed to us that way. Right. Or it’s fed to certain people, I suppose that way is that, uh. Hey, you’re you’re,  it’s it’s it’s safety. It’s the safety of your family and all that stuff. And people don’t think about immigration the way they once did.

Raul Lomeli-Azoubel: Yeah. Now we even need to be concerned about our pets. Like you were mentioning a minute ago. But yeah, I mean, when you take a step back from the, you know, CNN and the Fox of the world, and you walk around your neighborhood or you visit your local restaurant, you begin to see that actually, we’re quite integrated. And the issue is really more, unfortunately, demagogy and much less about the practicality of, of the world that we actually live in. Mhm. So, so indeed, yes, it is much, much needed. And specifically because of the way that our economy works. The bottom line is that up until recently and I’m talking about literally less than 20 years ago, someone who was in the country,  as an immigrant, had a lot of difficulty to basically just establish a bank account. And so the fact that this has not been an area that fintech really focused on, or that the venture world didn’t focus on, is a huge opportunity that we’re trying to solve for.

Kevin Rosenquist: So you spent several years at Wells Fargo working as a Latino market manager and VP of diverse growth segments. You know, what was the tipping point for you when you said, hey, I need to switch gears? I want to find Welcome Tech.

Raul Lomeli-Azoubel: Yeah. So this is a funny and true story. And I like funny and true. Well, there you go. So my business partner and co-founder Amir Hammad, this is our third company, our third venture,  that we’ve done. The first one was a financial literacy program that we had created back in 2002, 2003, and Wells Fargo acquired that. Okay. We were not the only one. They acquired several other startups in this financial literacy world. And that’s what became In Time. Hands on banking, which is their financial literacy program managed through their foundation. The funny part comes is that I was telling my business partner that he sold me out because as we were negotiating terms, and not only did they get all of our financial literacy program, but I was thrown in as well that I had to be with them for five years as part of the acquisition. So I was like, wow, he did sell you out. So as I was there at Wells Fargo, I had a great time, great experience, 2003 through 2008, and my business partner continued to evolve. Our second company, which at the time. Knowledge is Power and Spanish Saber es poder, which we were tackling other major issues outside of financial services, financial literacy. And that’s how those five years at Wells Fargo happened to be as happy as I was. I did leave after five years and one day so I could go and build our next company. That was a media educational platform with our own closed circuit television network operating in over 50 locations inside Latin American consulates in the US.  so so that’s that’s that’s how it happened. Yes.

Kevin Rosenquist: And that’s,  that’s. I’m sorry. I’m going to butcher this even though you just said it. Say it. What is it again?

Raul Lomeli-Azoubel: Yes. That’s right. So knowledge is power. I did.

Kevin Rosenquist: I ChatGPT told me how to translate it.

Raul Lomeli-Azoubel: So it’s salmon, which means knowledge is powder. Power is powder.

Kevin Rosenquist: Okay. Got it. All right. Cool. Okay, so tell me a little bit more about that. I’m interested to know. So that was more of a community platform right. It’s a way. And you said it’s also Media. A media channel. Can you talk a little bit more about what this product does?

Raul Lomeli-Azoubel: Yes. We’ve always been my business partner and I have always been very interested in not just educating for the sake of education, but to educate, to change behavior. And that’s obviously very difficult to do. Human beings, we like our patterns. We like how we do things. So changing behavior is a major task. Sure. So we know that it takes between 8 to 12 times,  delivering a message for someone to even begin to think about changing their behavior. So what we would do through this closed circuit television network operating in waiting areas of consulates, which, by the way, if you were to go to a Mexican consulate in the US, you walk in and you can actually process your passport or your other form of documentation. But what you’re waiting there literally is like being in the doctor’s office for 2 to 4 hours. You’re just standing at the person in front of you. So we actually Located our digital signage. So while they were there, we would convert wedding areas into learning rooms. So that was at the cusp of it saying, okay, how if they’re sitting there, how can we provide them basic information so they can become better informed and doing so, become more active in their society, in their new community? So that’s why knowledge is power. We’re trying to make sure that immigrants understand the ways of our society in the United States, so that they can actually become more active participants. And I think we did a pretty good job,  given the fact that 9 million people a year go through these waiting areas and the results led ten years later to what welcome tech became.

Kevin Rosenquist: Okay. So that’s a good transition into welcome tech. So you’ve called it the digital Ellis Island I really like that. I think kind of what we talked about some people forget you know, this country is built and thrived through, you know, was built on and thrived through immigration. And are you trying to kind of rekindle that feeling of hope and opportunity? Is that why you use that phrasing?

Raul Lomeli-Azoubel: Yes. Look, when you think of Ellis Island, it was the entry point of one of many massive migration patterns into the United States. If you think about immigration and the Office of Immigration was for the most of the 19th century, didn’t even exist with Ellis Island. You suddenly had the need to be able to, in an orderly format, welcome immigrants. And the way that they did it is that this office of Immigration was actually within the Treasury Department. It was quite simple, right? You pay a tax, you pay a fee, you get a health check. And if you are good, you are welcome into the country. And, you know, shortly thereafter it got moved to the Department of Labor. Makes a lot of sense. You need someone to be employed there. An immigrant. You can run their documentation. Everything shifted after World War between World War One and World War two, because then suddenly it was placed under the Department of Justice. So now suddenly it’s an issue of legality. That was the first time that immigration or an immigrant was perceived. Are they here legally or not? And then, of course, after nine over 11 that, you know, we just had, you know, two days ago, right? Or a few days ago, nine over 11 anniversary commemoration. And now it was not only about whether you’re here legally or not, but now under the Department of Homeland Security. Are you here to hurt us? Right. So what this has done in this process is that it went from attracting the best talent in the world, nourishing the best talent in the world, helping them integrate into us to now going like, hmm, I’m not sure that I want to welcome another immigrants because they may be here to hurt us or eat our pets. So so that that is in a nutshell, you know why we call it we’re at Ellis Island. Government can continue to deal with the immigration and citizenship and so forth. But at its core, immigrants want to contribute, right? And the best way to do that is by educating them in the ways of our society so they can really be productive citizens.

Kevin Rosenquist: Quick history lesson from you. Do you know why, in between World War One and World War two, it switched to the justice system?

Raul Lomeli-Azoubel: Yeah, that’s a very good question. And there’s several theories on it. One big one is because it was right between the Great Depression. Right. And there was if you actually go into the history that history is not taught in California alone, there was mass deportation not only of immigrants, but of Latinos born in the US. Just the fact that they they looked, you know, a little hand tanner than others and they were deported, you know, when when the economy is not doing so good, it’s it’s much easier to point fingers when someone, you know, worships a different,  religion, God, a culture, language, color of your skin. And so that is like a take our.

Kevin Rosenquist: Jobs kind of thing, too.

Raul Lomeli-Azoubel: Yes, yes. Yeah. And by the way, it’s not only about, you know, foreigners. Right. When you think of the Great Migration from, you know, Oklahoma,  you know, into California, you know, the dustpan and so forth, it was an issue. Like, what do you mean? Why are you here? Right. So it’s always that reaction that unfortunately, humans, you know, we tend to repeat our own mistakes right over, over time. And,  and hopefully a little bit that we do at Welcome Tech is try to reverse that pattern. And actually, there’s some things in history that we could repeat that were good. And I think this Ellis Island is one of them. Mhm.

Kevin Rosenquist: A lot of the people who come to you totally lost and desperate for help, or are more of them in a good place, just need help with certain aspects. Is it more of a mixture? What kind of people are generally coming to you?

Raul Lomeli-Azoubel: Yes. So that’s I think at the core I think you’re hitting the right question. There are 45 million immigrants in the United States. Okay. Out of those 45 million, about 1 in 4 are undocumented. That means that three out of four are not. Right. But that would be a very simplistic way of saying, well, there’s 45 million immigrants. But what we forget is that these immigrants don’t live on their own. Actually, we have mixed status households where there’s an immigrant parent and one that was U.S. born. Or sometimes you have two immigrant parents, but one of them is undocumented. And the reason why I phrased it that way is because as to your question, we have all levels of information, but also our biggest fight is with misinformation. So people, when they know that they don’t know, it is so much easier to walk them through. Right. For example, telling them, hey, in the United States, you do not go to the emergency room unless it’s a life and death situation, because many of our immigrants are accustomed in their home countries to actually go to the emergency rooms to receive primary care.

Raul Lomeli-Azoubel: So when we teach them and educate them, they don’t go to the emergency room. If it’s not a life or death situation, go to urgent care, because by doing so, you’re saving tax dollars for everyone. Right. So to your question, if someone does not know how financial services work, very simple to walk them through. This is what you need. This is the primary form of identification. Secondary form of identification. You need a tax ID, whether it’s your Social Security number or an Itin, and you need funds and this is how you manage it. Simple. When people are misinformed, that’s where the real challenge happens. Yeah. And that’s what we find out. Sometimes people will be opening an account and saying, you know, you’re not doing it right. How do you tell someone that they’re wrong in a way that is going to be constructive and that they’re going to see that we do care, and that we want to make sure that they are informed to make those decisions. That’s the big challenge. Mhm.

Kevin Rosenquist: Yeah. And financial inclusion is something we talk about on the show quite often. Uh so yeah just having a bank account, having access to a bank account is something that, you know, is a problem for a lot of a lot of countries and certainly a lot of people here in the United States. What types of financial tools do you offer to customers to help them budget, to help them get access to banking products?

Raul Lomeli-Azoubel: Right. So we have three layer. We have over 4 million registered users in our platform, and the majority of them are on this free layer where they can go to their account and literally and get all types of information and education at the core of courses, budgeting, if they don’t know how to budget their their household expenses and income, it doesn’t matter if they have a bank account, they inevitably may get into trouble. So number one is educating them in the free layer as to how can you actually create your household practices is for you to be able to then manage your money more appropriately. So once they know how to budget, then we move into how do you create or establish a bank account. And they’re very, very basic information. Here’s a debit card and here’s a savings account. And this is how they both operate. Once they get there then we go a bit more complex items such as how is a credit score established? Individually, what can you do to actually control your credit score? How can you improve it? What things you should be careful about? And of course after that everything is into finance, right? Everything from, you know, first time home buying, sending and your children and your children attending school, how your education insurance, investments. But we go at the pace that our members will ask us to go. So if some of them are more advanced. Happy to share information with them. But at the end it’s all about providing options, whether they choose our products or they choose somebody else’s. If they are informed consumers, we all benefit.

Kevin Rosenquist: Yeah, you brought up a good point earlier too, like the emergency room versus urgent care thing, you know, because not only tax dollars but just the amount of money you spend on it, you know, is so much more going to the emergency room and insurance. And I guess that’s something that people don’t probably don’t think about much is that when, when someone you know comes into this country, you know, immigrates to this country they don’t really like just they don’t necessarily know that stuff if it’s way different than what they’re used to. So you’re basically providing a hub so that people understand how to get their life going here in the US.

Raul Lomeli-Azoubel: That is correct. That is correct. And  in a core area is that, you know, it’s again, it’s very difficult to change behavior, right? If someone is open to receive that information. So much easier for someone who is skeptical, it’s a bit more difficult. But when you get those skeptical individuals and you show them that, that you are genuine, that you’re really trying to to help, then they really become your, your most important and vocal advocates.  and that’s what we try to do.  We have , on average, 2 million interactions per week. Most of these interactions happen via SMS.  immigrant communities tend to be very comfortable,  you know, texting back and forth. And that way we keep it out of the,  social media extravaganza where anyone and everyone thinks that they are, you know, an influencer. And, we keep it one on one. Whatever they share with us is very private. And whatever we share with them, they can share with their families and friends and communities.

Kevin Rosenquist: Many people bring up digital assets and crypto as a way to increase financial inclusion and expand options to unbanked and underbanked populations. Where do you land on that?

Raul Lomeli-Azoubel: Well, look, it is true that many of these immigrants come from countries where the fluctuation of their currency is a major issue. Take, for example, Venezuela.  You know, there’s been massive migration from Venezuela. And once families start in the US or Europe. When they begin to send money back in terms of remittances. The introduction of a stablecoin, particularly within the area that you’re mentioning, could be an opportunity for them to be able to get the remittance and not have to immediately convert it into their local currency that is constantly getting devalued. Right. So the issue is how do we create, how can the government create the guardrails to ensure that individuals know how to select the proper coin? Right. It’s a stablecoin or is it more of an investment, you know, a little more.

Kevin Rosenquist: Volatile.

Raul Lomeli-Azoubel: A bit more volatile. Right. It can go both ways with volatility. There’s more opportunity but there’s also more risk. But I think in terms of a stablecoin,  I think that the remittance industry is barely scratching the surface and cryptocurrency has to be part of the conversation because of the volatility that you will encounter, and not just in Venezuela. You can see over the last month Mexico’s coin, a peso, has been devalued by, you know, 15% or so because of what is perceived as potentially political instability. So,  so yes, I do believe that a stable coin, particularly in the cryptocurrency world, could be very beneficial for the transfer of funds, particularly for, for, for very poor communities.

Kevin Rosenquist: So you talked about how you guys know others to help with jobs, health services, educational content, dental services. Talk about how the platform work. So there is a platform. And when you talk about how people can message you and talk and you go through it with everybody, but are there a lot of do it yourself options on the platform for people who may not need as much hand-holding?

Raul Lomeli-Azoubel: Yes, we were all about meeting our members halfway. Actually, my own cell phone number ends with 50 over 50. And it’s on purpose, right? Like, I’m not trying to convince someone to get help. It’s like, hey, we’re here. You stretch your arm, we’ll stretch ours as well. And one of the things that we found most helpful to our community is that if we educate them with those 8 to 12 touches, then they’ll be able to take those next steps when it comes to healthcare. That is perhaps the most important area. I know that financial services can provide the stability for them to be able to grow their credit and be able to access other products and services. But healthcare can really throw,  you know, a curve ball to a family that is, you know, doing well, or households that have mixed status members. What do I mean by that? When someone is documented and there’s someone in the household or more that are undocumented, if you do not have a Social Security number, is very difficult for the person to be insured. So what we came up with was a membership program that is a health savings program. So we do not need to ask for Social Security number, whether they have them or not is relevant to us. And they can access telemedicine for primary care and especially dentist. We take it for granted the importance that dental hygiene has on your overall health. And when someone is not going consistently to the dentist, you you end up with more chronic diseases because of the bacteria in your mouth. But anyways, that’s a that’s a much longer conversation. Yeah, yeah. Hang on.

Kevin Rosenquist: Let me make a quick note. Make a dentist appointment.

Raul Lomeli-Azoubel: As simple as this change, you know darn toothbrush. Toothbrush. Yeah, yeah. Or so. And that’s as simple as that. It could save people a need to, to to have to go to a chronic condition on, on their, on their oral hygiene.

Kevin Rosenquist: Oh they say I mean they say like mouth issues, oral issues can affect your brain. It can affect your, you know, like there’s all sorts of stuff like that. So yeah, it’s a good point that maybe an overlooked thing like I can’t afford it. So I’m not going to do this, but yet you could end up leading to really bad health problems down the road as long.

Raul Lomeli-Azoubel: As you’re dating life, I hear.

Speaker3: Good call.

Raul Lomeli-Azoubel: But that’s it. But that’s long past me. You know, I always say, like my business partner, you know, 20 years I’ve been married for 25 years. So I’m very consistent. Very consistent, very loyal. Yeah.  but you have two spouses.

Kevin Rosenquist: Kind of.

Raul Lomeli-Azoubel: Exactly. That’s right, that’s right.

Kevin Rosenquist: So we talked a little bit about the rhetoric involved with immigration at the top of the show. And, and, you know, especially at the southern border, obviously, we talked about there’s a lot of misinformation out there. It’s led to mistrust and anger towards immigrant populations. And in a larger sense since you’re so close to it, what do you see as the best way to change the narrative in the US specifically?

Speaker4: I mean that’s the easiest.

Raul Lomeli-Azoubel: Which at the same time is the most difficult way, would be for Congress to act and actually provide a path for regularization of their status. And I want to make sure that this is heard correctly. I’m not asking for a path to citizenship. Most immigrants can care less whether they become citizens or not. What they do want is a visa, a work permit, permanent residency for them to be able to come out of the showers and shadows and to contribute properly to the country. But the issue is that, you know, we haven’t had proper immigration reform in this country since 1986. It actually was under the administration of Ronald Reagan the last time that we actually had a comprehensive immigration reform. So as you can imagine, now that we have some 12 million undocumented immigrants,  whenever they see someone that may not look like them.  it’s an immediate reaction, visceral reaction as to, you know, why are they here and what’s going on? You know, again, when I talk about 12 million, very few people would ever,  you know, acknowledge or know that 1 million of those actually are from Canada and Europe. But we don’t talk about that. Right? We really talk about,  particularly Latin America, particularly Central America.  so, so,  you know, that’s why we don’t get into the politics of it. Yeah. But if we can actually educate our members, you know, how to be better citizens by understanding the financial system in this country, how to better,  better citizens, by understanding how to take care of their health. So in turn, it can help everyone else. We actually educate our members, even those that are undocumented. The importance of paying taxes and why it’s important. And you’ll be surprised how excited they are to know when they know that they can actually file their taxes, even though they will never be able to get benefits. As you know. Social security. Social security. Yeah.

Kevin Rosenquist: Well, I’m not sure I will either by the time I’m eligible. So. But to your but continue with your point.

Raul Lomeli-Azoubel: That’s a key point Kevin. Right. Because a part of the reason why Social Security Administration and their and their reserves have been able to be extended a little bit is precisely because of the undocumented working population, because there’s between $20 and $30 billion a year that are being put into the system from undocumented workforce that they will never be able to touch, but they can’t take. Yeah, they cannot take. So it’s basically free money going into the system, right. A system that was established again after the Great Recession, 1937, is established. And it’s been an ongoing great,  a social net,  to protect the elderly so that they can actually continue to spend money, which in turn supports the economy. Right. So immigration reform I think would be the ideal scenario. Until that happens, we’re going to teach them how to open a bank account, how to take care of their health, and how to understand how to navigate new systems. And by doing that, at least we’ll make sure that they become, you know, better informed, confident, active participants in US society.

Kevin Rosenquist: Raul Lomeli, I really appreciate you being here. The company welcomes tech and the other platform is.

Speaker3: Saber es.

Raul Lomeli-Azoubel: Poder.

Kevin Rosenquist: There it is. Thank you very much for being here, Raul. I really appreciate your time and really enjoy the conversation.

Speaker3: Likewise. Thank you.

Raul Lomeli-Azoubel: Thank you. Kevin.