Founder Of Black-Owned Scholarship App Sues His Acquirer
Chris Gray, founder of the Black-owned scholarship app Scholly, is suing its acquirer, Sallie Mae, alleging that it sold data collected on the app, as reported by TechCrunch. Scholly, which allows Black students to easily search for scholarships, was acquired by Saille Mae in 2023. However, Gray is now alleging that his acquirer sold data […] The post Founder Of Black-Owned Scholarship App Sues His Acquirer appeared first on POCIT. Telling the stories and thoughts of the underrepresented in tech..
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Chris Gray, founder of the Black-owned scholarship app Scholly, is suing its acquirer, Sallie Mae, alleging that it sold data collected on the app, as reported by TechCrunch. Scholly, which allows Black students to easily search for scholarships, was acquired by Saille Mae in 2023.
However, Gray is now alleging that his acquirer sold data his app collected, including information on minors, without telling users. He is also suing the company for wrongful termination.
Chris Gray’s lawsuit against Sallie Mae
In the lawsuit, Gray alleges that Sallie Mae fired his employees and then went back on its promise not to sell users’ data, according to a TechCrunch review of both filings. Gray states that the company fired him after he raised concerns about data privacy. Gray is seeking back pay, punitive damages, and legal costs in the suit.
When speaking to TechCrunch, Gray shared that before agreeing to the sale, he assumed he would be barred from disclosing or selling non-public personal information about Scholly customers to third parties because Scholly was a federally regulated financial institution.
Now he alleges that his acquirer circumvented such regulations by placing Scholly in a subsidiary that sells the data — including age, gender, race, and other indicators of an individual’s financial need — to third parties such as universities and advertisers, without the students’ consent.
Sallie Mae has denied Gray’s allegations, stating that they are “without merit.”
About Scholly
Scholly is a Black-founded, industry-leading scholarship search app and platform created by Christopher Gray.
During his last few months at high school, Gray was set on attending college, but because of the cost, he spent hours in the library searching for scholarships.
He eventually received $1.3 million in scholarships from organizations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation to study finance and entrepreneurship at Drexel University.
His experiences with scholarship searches led Gray to the idea of a mobile app that could save prospective college students both time and money. So, in 2013, along with fellow student Nick Pirollo and Coca-Cola scholar Bryson Alef, Gray created Scholly to streamline the scholarship search process.
Image: Scholly
The post Founder Of Black-Owned Scholarship App Sues His Acquirer appeared first on POCIT. Telling the stories and thoughts of the underrepresented in tech..
