SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 30, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Credit Sesame, the leading consumer credit health management platform, today announced it has closed over $43 million in equity and debt funding. ATW Partners, a New York City-based growth stage investor, led the latest equity round with participation from existing investors. Credit Sesame backers include Menlo Ventures, Inventus Capital, Globespan Capital, IA Capital Groups, Symantec, Capital One Ventures, and Stanford University, among others. Furthermore, Credit Sesame expects more investors to join the round.
This financing will bring total funding raised by the company to $110 million and paves the way to continue the company's rapid growth and IPO plans. With the funding, Credit Sesame will make further in-roads developing artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities to provide consumers access to more personalized, actionable insights to improve their credit and financial health quickly and at scale.
U.S. household debt hit a record $13.86 trillion dollars in Q2 2019, rising 1.4% from Q1. With rising consumer credit levels, credit health management has become paramount. If managed incorrectly, poor credit can impact almost all facets of a consumer’s life -- from what home or car they can buy to where they can go to school or work. While there are many technologies available to manage assets, much less attention has been paid to managing the liabilities side of the balance sheet, which depends on a complicated calculus of the consumer’s credit, qualifications and market offerings.
Credit Sesame solves this problem by serving as the leading Personal Credit Management (PCM) platform to manage consumers credit and credit decisions for better credit and financial health. The company’s RoboCredit™ technology simplifies and automates the management of consumer credit and liabilities. It leverages aggregated data and advanced analytics at scale to provide consumers with personalized, actionable insights to help them manage and improve their credit and financial health.
“Credit Sesame was the first company to offer consumers free and monthly access to their credit picture including their score and credit details. However, we quickly realized that access was only the first step. Consumers need guidance to understand credit in order to effectively manage and improve it,” said founder and CEO Adrian Nazari. “Our newly developed PCM platform ushers in a new era of Personal Credit Management with personalized analysis, machine learning and self-driving guidance to help consumers make the right decisions at the right time to better their credit and financial health.”
This funding comes at a time of significant growth for the company. Credit Sesame has been operationally profitable since 2017. Its revenue and transactions have grown at an average of 90% compounded annual growth rate over the past five years. Credit Sesame’s success has been driven by the value consumers derive from its platform. 61% see their credit score improve within the first six months. More specifically, 27% of Credit Sesame members see their credit score improve by over ten points in their first month, and 20% see their credit score improve more than 50 points in their first six months.
“Credit Sesame is revolutionizing how consumers manage their credit. What once was a mystery and black box is now distilled by Credit Sesame’s PCM platform into easy to digest actionable insights that can effortlessly and meaningfully change a consumer’s credit and financial health,” said Kerry Propper, co-founder and managing partner at ATW Partners. “We’re thrilled to open the gates to a new age of Personal Credit Management with the Credit Sesame team leading the space.”
Credit Sesame will also use the funding to expand data science, engineering, product and marketing teams in both its San Francisco and Mountain View offices.
About Credit Sesame
Credit Sesame’s mission is to help consumers improve their credit health and ultimately create better opportunities for themselves and their families. Strong credit health is vital to financial health and impacts everything from securing approvals for car and home loans to determining insurance rates. Credit Sesame’s approach to personal credit management democratizes access to credit information and empowers consumers with a personal roadmap towards credit and financial health. Credit Sesame has already helped millions of users improve their credit scores, increase their approval odds, lower the cost of credit and save money. Credit Sesame is funded by leading venture capital firms and strategic investors, including Menlo Ventures, Inventus Capital, Globespan Capital, IA Capital Groups, Symantec, Capital One Ventures, and Stanford University, among others. For more information on Credit Sesame, visit www.creditsesame.com and follow on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. For more details on careers at Credit Sesame, see here.