Alpha Modus and SurgePays Unite to Target the Over 100 Million Subprime and Underserved Consumers Driving America’s Prepaid Economy
Rhea-AI Summary
Alpha Modus (NASDAQ: AMOD) and SurgePays (NASDAQ: SURG) signed a Letter of Intent on Jan 20, 2026 to form a commercial integration and distribution partnership to serve subprime and underserved consumers.
The LOI targets expansion via SurgePays’ retail footprint of >8,000 merchants with potential rollout into up to 100,000 retail locations, and contemplates Alpha Modus’ forthcoming digital wallet Alpha Cash pre-loaded on 3,000 new devices per day. Planned integrations include SurgePays’ Top-Up, benefit-enrollment platforms, ClearLine POS, ProgramBenefits.com and wireless signup workflows. Companies will negotiate definitive agreements covering technical integration, pricing, revenue sharing, and a pilot with select AMFS merchants.
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Negative
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Key Figures
Market Reality Check
Peers on Argus
AMOD gained 8.15% while key peers showed mixed moves (e.g., WETO up 2.83%, CYN down 8.57%, NUKK down 9.82%). Momentum scanner flagged only NTCL up 4.77% without news, supporting a stock-specific move tied to AMOD’s announcement.
Historical Context
| Date | Event | Sentiment | Move | Catalyst |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 13 | Ticketing partnership | Positive | +6.6% | Multi-year Tickets For Less integration to sell live-event tickets via AlphaCash. |
| Jan 08 | Rollout update | Positive | +8.1% | AlphaCash rollout plan in grocery and convenience stores for underbanked consumers. |
| Jan 06 | DXC partnership | Positive | +7.3% | DXC Technology partnership to deploy financial services kiosks nationwide for underbanked. |
| Dec 05 | Retailer pilot | Positive | -6.5% | Pilot with major retailer for ~100 AlphaCash kiosks and pathway to thousands more. |
| Dec 03 | Patent lawsuit | Negative | +1.3% | Patent infringement lawsuit filed against H&M over in‑store AI systems. |
Recent positive partnership and rollout news for AlphaCash often coincided with positive price reactions, though one major pilot announcement saw a negative move, indicating occasional divergence even on constructive updates.
Over the past months, Alpha Modus has focused on scaling its AlphaCash platform through pilots and partnerships. A December 2025 pilot with a major national retailer for ~100 kiosks in Texas set the stage for broader expansion. Early January 2026 brought a DXC Technology partnership for nationwide kiosk deployment, followed by updates on a phased AlphaCash rollout and a Tickets For Less integration to add event ticketing. Today’s SurgePays LOI extends that strategy into subprime and underserved channels, aligning with earlier efforts to build a wide, underbanked-focused distribution network.
Regulatory & Risk Context
An effective Form S-3 shelf filed on 2026-01-07 allows Alpha Modus to offer up to $250,000,000 of Class A common stock, warrants and units, including an at-the-market component of up to $3,500,000. Recent 424B3 filings on 2026-01-16 indicate active use of this capacity, highlighting potential dilution alongside access to capital.
Market Pulse Summary
This announcement expands Alpha Modus’s Alpha Cash strategy through a planned integration with SurgePays’ network of over 8,000 merchants, with positioning toward as many as 100,000 locations serving subprime and underserved consumers. It follows recent kiosk, retailer, and ticketing partnerships aimed at building a broad financial access ecosystem. Investors may watch how quickly LOI terms convert into definitive agreements, deployment metrics such as device pre-loads, and how these initiatives intersect with the company’s active $250,000,000 shelf and ATM program.
Key Terms
closed-loop technical
AI-generated analysis. Not financial advice.
CORNELIUS, N.C. and BARTLETT, Tenn., Jan. 20, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Alpha Modus Financial Services, LLC (“AMFS”), a division of Alpha Modus Holdings, Inc. (“Alpha Modus”) (NASDAQ: AMOD), and SurgePays, Inc. (NASDAQ: SURG), a wireless and fintech technology company connecting subprime and underserved consumers to essential mobile and financial services, today announced the signing of a Letter of Intent (the “LOI”) to establish a commercial integration and distribution partnership. This strategic alliance is designed to expand financial access, enhance in-store engagement, and deliver a modern suite of digital services to subprime and underserved consumers nationwide.
Addressing the Needs of the Underserved
Per the National Association of Convenience Stores, more than 100 million Americans visit convenience stores, wireless dealers, and small merchants each month for essential services. Many of these consumers are historically underserved, relying on prepaid mobile services, government assistance programs, or cash-based transactions.
Through this partnership, Alpha Modus and SurgePays aim to create one of the most extensive distribution channels in America by leveraging SurgePays’ retail footprint of over 8,000 independent merchants and positioning to drive expansion into up to 100,000 retail locations.
Integration of Alpha Cash
Central to this collaboration is the integration of the forthcoming AMFS digital wallet, “Alpha Cash.” This partnership should allow the financially underserved to cash checks, pay bills, transfer funds, reload prepaid mobile accounts, and purchase prepaid cards and event tickets directly through Alpha Cash.
“SurgePays reaches the exact consumer we built Alpha Cash for: the shopper who walks into a store every week, but is disconnected from financial inclusion,” stated Chris Chumas, Chief Strategy Officer of Alpha Modus. “Our partner’s growth is impressive and the prospect of having Alpha Cash pre-loaded on 3,000 new devices per day presents significant opportunity. The partnership is aimed to establish an operating framework that supports Alpha Modus’ commercialization efforts, expand Alpha Cash’s deployment footprint, and enable a measurable outcome in communities with limited access to financial services.”
Strategic Implementation
Under the LOI, the companies will primarily integrate, pre-load, and promote Alpha Cash as the primary financial services partner within SurgePays’ assets, including:
- ProgramBenefits.com and the ClearLine POS marketing platform.
- SurgePays digital intake flows and wireless signup workflows (Torch, LinkUp, Lifeline, etc.)
- SurgePays consumer-facing benefit enrollment or prepaid activation platforms.
Brian Cox, CEO of SurgePays, stated, “A financial services partner is a core component of our accelerated growth strategy. Over the past 15 years, we have activated millions of wireless customers, and our next phase of scale is centered on materially improving customer economics by monetizing the moment of enrollment, when consumer intent and engagement are at their highest. This partnership with Alpha Modus advances that strategy by allowing us to layer complementary financial services directly into the sign-up experience, expanding monetization per customer while increasing the efficiency of how we acquire and serve the subprime and underserved consumer. Positioning Alpha Cash as a high value financial service on ProgramBenefits.com enables us to generate incremental revenue from existing traffic and sign-ups, driving improved unit economics, faster payback periods, and a more scalable customer acquisition model.”
Mr. Cox continued, “The strength of this collaboration lies in the leverage it creates across both platforms. Alpha Modus gains immediate access to our national distribution spanning wireless, retail, and point of sale, while SurgePays unlocks additional monetization layers that integrate directly into our consumer engagement and customer acquisition workflows. This approach reflects our strategy of driving scalable growth through our own distribution and lead generation platforms.”
Technical Synergy and Future Steps
The LOI outlines a joint plan to integrate SurgePays’ nationwide Top-Up and benefits-enrollment platforms with the Alpha Cash mobile wallet, as well as co-deploy SurgePays’ ClearLine POS engagement technology across the AMFS merchant network.
The collaboration combines SurgePays’ reach into underbanked communities with Alpha Modus’ patented real-time, closed-loop operating framework: Sense → Decide → Deliver → Attribute, creating new pathways for financial empowerment and retailer growth.
Both companies will now work toward definitive agreements covering technical integration, pricing, revenue-sharing models, and a pilot deployment with select AMFS merchants.
About Alpha Modus Holdings, Inc.
Alpha Modus is a vertical AI company focused on real-time, in-store shopper engagement and attribution. Its patented “closed-loop” retail AI framework, Sense → Decide → Deliver → Attribute, enables brands and retailers to measure the full impact of digital content, physical interactions, and transaction outcomes. Through subsidiaries like Alpha Modus Financial Services, the company is actively deploying technologies that merge artificial intelligence, retail media, and financial access across the physical retail landscape.
For more information, visit: www.alphamodus.com
Alpha Modus maintains a comprehensive overview of its patent portfolio on its website: https://alphamodus.com/what-we-do/patent-portfolio/.
For more information and to access Alpha Modus’ press room, visit: https://alphamodus.com/press-room/
Alpha Modus Contact Information
Investor Relations
Alpha Modus Holdings, Inc.
Email: ir@alphamodus.com
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About SurgePays, Inc.
SurgePays, Inc. (NASDAQ: SURG) is a wireless and fintech technology company focused on expanding access to essential mobile and financial services for subprime and underserved consumers. The company operates a nationwide ecosystem that includes its own wireless brands and a proprietary point of sale platform inside thousands of retail locations. This infrastructure supports SIM activations, top-ups, financial transactions, and other digital services used daily by prepaid and underbanked customers.
SurgePays is building on this foundation by advancing into data driven marketing and digital partnerships that monetize verified consumer engagement. This approach creates recurring, high margin revenue streams while expanding the company’s reach across both online and retail channels. SurgePays aims to become a leading digital marketplace and data intelligence platform serving the one-third of America that relies on prepaid and subprime financial services.
SurgePays Investor Contact:
Valter Pinto, Managing Director
KCSA Strategic Communications
PH: 212-896-1254
SurgePays@KCSA.com
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release includes “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the “safe harbor” provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Alpha Modus and SurgePays’ actual results may differ from their expectations, estimates, and projections, and, consequently, you should not rely on these forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. Words such as “expect,” “estimate,” “project,” “budget,” “forecast,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “plan,” “may,” “will,” “could,” “should,” “believes,” “predicts,” “potential,” “continue,” and similar expressions (or the negative versions of such words or expressions) are intended to identify such forward-looking statements, but are not the exclusive means of identifying these statements. These forward-looking statements include, without limitation, Alpha Modus and SurgePays’ expectations with respect to future performance, entrance into a future definitive agreement between Alpha Modus and SurgePays, the ability to successfully integrate the services and the performance of such integration. The forward-looking statements contained in this release are also subject to other risks and uncertainties, including those more fully described in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including in Annual Reports on Form 10-K’s for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024. The forward-looking statements in this press release speak only as of the date on which the statements are made. We undertake no obligation to update, and expressly disclaim the obligation to update, any forward-looking statements made in this press release to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this press release or to reflect new information or the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law.