Bloom Credit Nabs $3.87M Seed Round

Bloom Credit, a financial wellness platform that helps consumers and lenders build a healthy credit relationship, today announced it has raised a total of $3.87 million in seed investment. Resolute Ventures led the latest investment with participation from Kindred Ventures and Slow Ventures.

Special advisors to Bloom Credit include fintech luminaries such as Mark Goines, Vice Chairman of Personal Capital, Matt Burton, founder of Orchard, Eli Broverman, founder of Betterment and Shivani Siroya, founder of Tala. Founded in 2017, Bloom Credit graduated from the 500 Startups Batch 20 acceleration program. 500 Startups has also invested in the company through its FinTech Fund.

Bloom Credit enables financial institutions to nurture relationships with consumers who applied for their loans but were denied due to the lender's origination standards. Bloom Credit works with the declined applicant and provides actionable credit-building insights to strengthen their credit health and financial readiness for the loan they originally requested; the applicant may also receive new loan offers and product recommendations. Applicants on the platform typically become serviceable in one to six months and grow their credit scores 17.3 points on average.

"We believe all consumers are inherently creditworthy but may simply need help to earn the credit they need and deserve. And while lenders have the capacity to lend, we also recognize they receive too many non-qualified applicants and simply must say "No" or price at rates that don't make sense for the customer," said Matt Harris, co-founder and CEO of Bloom Credit. "With Bloom Credit, we see the opportunity for a new beginning. We're working to change what can be a very negative borrower-lender experience and seed a healthy relationship dynamic from the start."

"Bloom Credit's application of deep data science to the credit rating process is unlocking a massive but neglected market for lenders while helping consumers obtain credit they actually merit. The combination of team, technology and a demonstrated market opportunity has us thrilled about the opportunity ahead," said Mike Hirshland, co-founder of Resolute Ventures who led the investment.

Bloom Credit's platform integrates traditional credit bureau data and alternative data sets to evaluate a consumer's credit history and forward-looking financial goals. Through AI, machine-learning algorithms, human interventions and a digital user experience, Bloom Credit provides a turn-by-turn of prospective actions for consumers to take to improve their credit health before seeking new loan eligibility.

"Having access to good credit is key to so much in our world, from basic transportation to secure housing, and more. Many of us take this for granted. While others are wrongly locked out. Inclusion will be the essential component of next-generation financial services," said Sheel Mohnot, Partner, 500 Startups, Fintech Fund. "We're very excited to back Bloom Credit, as they fit squarely with our fund thesis of 'Financial Services for the Rest of Us.' Through data science and analytics, they will help more consumers fully participate in the best of the credit market, and also help financial providers to make this goal attainable."

Bloom Credit licenses its software-as-a-service via API to financial institutions and their partners to enable them to nurture customer relationships directly. The company receives fees from lenders for successful graduations and product recommendations that create new loan relationships. Bloom Credit is currently working with both loan originators and their partners, and directly with consumers.

"We're honored to be partnering with some of the best investors and financial and fintech luminaries in the country to help consumers and lenders build healthier credit relationships than the status quo. With this financing round, we'll strengthen our products, reach and help more consumers, and advance our programmatic customer-nurturing engine for lenders," added Harris.

About Bloom Credit

Bloom Credit is a financial wellness platform that helps consumers and lenders to nurture and develop credit-healthy relationships. Through deep credit analysis, AI, machine learning and human interventions, Bloom Credit provides a digital roadmap that helps consumers build their financial capacity and become serviceable for the loans they want, typically within one to six months. The company also works with loan originators and their partners to provide nurturing programs and credit-building product recommendations for declined loan applicants. Resolute Ventures led the company's most recent seed investment round with participation from Kindred Ventures and Slow Ventures. Earlier investors include 500 Startups through their Fintech Fund and a number of leading financial industry and fintech luminaries. Bloom Credit graduated from 500 Startups' Batch 20 accelerator program in 2017. For more information please visit www.bloomcred.it.