While still undergrads at Yale University in early 2000, Miles Lasater, Mark Volchek and Sean Glass noticed that students liked using ID cards to make purchases both on and off campus - but the number of places that accepted the card was limited; available online banking products and services were not designed to meet the needs of college students; and there were a number of inefficiencies in the way universities disbursed funds to students for financial aid. These included time delays before financial aid refunds were disbursed, long lines at the financial aid offices to pick up checks and overall poor customer service. As a result, the trio founded Higher One, developing technology that would help institutions and students move, manage and access money in a simple, innovative and progressive way through a card-based solution.

Today, the company provides students with convenient and simple online banking while helping universities and colleges function more efficiently by providing electronic disbursements of student refunds and connecting them to a student ID card. Higher One has grown quickly to help more than 210 schools handle financial disbursements in a more efficient, convenient and easy-to-use way. These include student refunds, on-campus and community purchases, and payroll and employee expenses.