- Consumer credit health management platform Credit Sesame announced it raised over $43 million in equity and debt funding
Consumer credit health management platform Credit Sesame announced that it closed over $43 million in equity and debt funding. Menlo Ventures, Inventus Capital, Globespan Capital, IA Capital Groups, Symantec, Capital One Ventures, Stanford University, and several others also join the round.
This round of funding brings the total raised by Credit Sesame to $110 million. And it is helping the company further pave the path to an IPO.
With this round of funding, Credit Sesame plans to make more in-roads developing artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities to provide consumers access to more personalized and actionable insights to improve their credit and financial health quickly and at scale.
Credit Sesame also plans to use the funding to expand data science, engineering, product, and marketing teams in both its San Francisco and Mountain View offices.
In Q2 2019, U.S. household debt hit a record $13.86 trillion — up 1.4% from Q1. And with rising consumer credit levels, credit health management has become an essential tool for households. Poor credit can negatively impact nearly all facets of a consumer’s life ranging from the type of home or car they can buy and where people can go to school or work.
There are many technologies available for managing assets, but very few tools available for 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 helps solve this problem by serving as the leading Personal Credit Management (PCM) platform for managing credit decisions for better credit and financial health. And the company’s RoboCredit technology simplifies and automates the management of consumer credit and liabilities.
The company 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 Credit Sesame founder and CEO Adrian Nazari in a statement. “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 round comes at a time of significant growth for Credit Sesame. The company has been operationally profitable since 2017. And its revenue and transactions have grown at an average of 90% compounded annual growth rate over the past five years.
The success of the company has been driven by the value consumers derive from its platform. About 61% see their credit score improve within the first six months. And 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,” added ATW Partners co-founder and managing partner Kerry Propper. “We’re thrilled to open the gates to a new age of Personal Credit Management with the Credit Sesame team leading the space.”
