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Tikue Anzodo’s Kudos Technologies helps online shoppers choose the best rewards credit card for every purchase and earn additional rewards from merchants. Newcomer to Fintech 50.
Illustration by Stephanie Cui for Forbes magazine.Photo by Alan Lantz
EAmid layoffs and funding shortages, financial technology startups continued to insert themselves into the money routines of millions of people. Six personal finance fintech companies, including two for the first time, have been named to the 2024 Forbes FinTech 50 list.
These newcomers reflect two realities about ordinary Americans. That means they tend to have multiple rewards credit cards in their wallets, but they don’t necessarily have a lot of spare cash. New entrant Kudos Technologies, led by Tikwe Anazod, offers a browser-based smart assistant that helps shoppers identify the best points to use on their cards for online purchases. Born in Nigeria, Mr. Anazodo came to the United States in 2009 to study computer science at Columbia University, where he worked at Affirm and Microsoft.
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Meanwhile, Sunbit, a startup founded in 2016, capitalizes on the fact that many Americans have to borrow when faced with unexpectedly large bills, such as car repairs, root canals, or sick pets. We have built our growth on this foundation. (According to a Federal Reserve study, only 57% of adults can cover an unexpected bill of $1,000 or more from savings, and only 46% can afford more than $2,000.) About 10,000 dental offices.
The four veteran companies on the list are Chime, the country’s largest digital bank, and three startups aiming to serve people with less banking, borrowing and credit experience. Esusu helps renters build their credit history, and Propel is designed to help low-income households manage both their income and benefits.
Finally, Tala has been a regular on the Fintech 50 since its second list in 2016. The company is based in Santa Monica, California, but makes small loans to customers with little or no formal borrowing history in the Philippines, Mexico, Kenya, and India. Use smartphone data to determine risk. In 2023, it provided a $1 billion loan.
The six personal finance companies named to the 2024 Fintech 50 are:
chime
Chime, America’s largest digital bank, first gained a following by offering free checking accounts and no overdraft fees. It allows customers to withdraw up to $200 from their accounts for free and provides them with a secured credit card (a plus for those with limited or poor credit history).
Headquarters: San Francisco, California.
Funding: $2.3 billion from Sequoia Capital, DST Global, Menlo Ventures and others.
Latest valuation: 25 billion dollars.
Latest evaluation date: August 2021.
sincerely: According to Apptopia, Chime app downloads increased from less than 14 million in 2022 to more than 18 million in 2023.
Co-founder: CEO Chris Britt, 50, previously worked at Green Dot
GDOT
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and visa. Ryan King, 47 years old.
Essusu
Help renters build their credit history and score for free by reporting on-time rent payments to the credit bureaus. Property owners pay a monthly, per-unit fee for this service. This is because it increases on-time payments, encourages renters to stay in the unit longer, and looks good in the property manager’s ESG reports.
Headquarters: New York, New York and Los Angeles, California.
Funding: $145 million from SoftBank, Motley Fool Ventures, Acumen Fund and others.
Latest valuation: 1 billion dollars.
Last evaluation date: January 2022.
sincerely: In 2023, the customer base grew to 400 property managers, lenders and other financial institutions, up from 213 the previous year.
Co-founder: Wemimo Abiy, 31, Nigerian immigrant. Samir Goel, 29 years old. Before starting Esusu, we both had nonprofit experience. Headquarters: New York, NY and Los Angeles, CA.
praise technology
Launched in 2022, Kudos Technologies offers a browser-based smart assistant that helps shoppers choose the best rewards card from their wallet for every online purchase. The app also offers special offers from thousands of participating merchants, all of which pay commissions to his Kudos. The number of registered users of Kudos has increased from 5,000 at the end of 2022 to 150,000 in 2023.
Headquarters: Los Angeles, California.
Funding: $17 million from QED
QED
Latest valuation: $45 million.
Last evaluation date: September 2023.
sincerely: Participating merchants include Walmart.
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Co-founder: Tikwe Anazod CEO, 32 years old Ahmad Ismail, CTO, 29 years old.
propel, move
The company’s provider app allows low-income households receiving government benefits such as SNAP (food stamps), rental assistance, and TANF (cash payments) to track these alongside their earned income and overall household budget. You will be able to manage your benefits. Propel also issues a free debit Mastercard
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Headquarters: Brooklyn, New York.
Funding: $90 million from Andreessen Horowitz, Kleiner Perkins, Nyca Partners and others.
Latest valuation: 500 million dollars.
Last evaluation date: February 2022.
sincerely: 5 million households use the app every month. Revenues for 2023 were $38 million, up from $34 million a year earlier.
sunbit
Founded in 2016, Sunbit provides over-the-counter consumer financing for large, unplanned expenses at thousands of businesses, including dentist offices and auto repair shops. The company’s loan customers increased from 1.6 million in 2022 to more than 2 million in 2023. Nearly 10,000 dental practices use Sunbit’s patient financing technology.
Headquarters: Los Angeles, California.
Funding: $256 million from Zeev Ventures, Group 11, Chicago Ventures and others.
Latest valuation: 1.1 billion dollars.
Last evaluation date: May 2021.
sincerely: It brought in revenue of $191 million in 2023, up from $129 million in 2022. Co-founder: CEO Arad Levertov, 46, served in Israel’s Shaitet-13 unit (often referred to as the Israeli Navy Special Forces). Chief Revenue Officer Tal Riesenfeld, 46; CTO Ornit Maisel, 44 years old. Mr. Tamir Hazan, head of AI, 49 years old.
cod
The company uses smartphone data to determine risk and provides loans ranging from $10 to $500 to customers in the Philippines, Mexico, Kenya, and India with little or no formal borrowing history. The company offers a digital wallet in the Philippines that allows more than 1 million customers to pay their bills through the Tala app, aiming to save money by avoiding cash withdrawals and incurring fees. . CEO Shivani Siroya said Tara rebuilt its data infrastructure in 2023 to reduce the time it takes most customers to get loan approval from two minutes to just a few seconds.
Headquarters: Santa Monica, California.
Funding: $350 million from IVP, Revolution and The Stellar
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Latest valuation: 800 million dollars.
Last evaluation date: October 2021.
sincerely: Extended $1 billion loan to 2023. The number of monthly active users rose from 3 million in April 2023 to 3.5 million in December 2023.
Founder: CEO Shivani Siroya, 41, founded Tara after researching the impact of microcredit in sub-Saharan and West African countries for the United Nations.
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