USA – Altro (formerly known as Perch), a San Francisco, CA-based platform that helps people build credit through non-traditional payments, raised $18M in Series A funding.
The round, brings Altro’s total funding to $21 million, was led by Pendulum, with participation from Jay-Z’s Marcy Ventures, as well as Citi Ventures, Black Capital Fund, and Concrete Rose Fund, and individual investors such as Dick Parsons (Equity Alliance, RNR) and Deborah Quazzo (GSV Ventures), among others. The company intends to use new funds will build its credit and financial literacy program and bring education and financial power to those excluded from traditional finance systems. Led by co-founder and CEO Michael Broughton, Altro allows users to build credit through recurring payment forms like digital subscriptions. Participating subscriptions services include but are not limited to Netflix, Youtube Premium, Dollar Shave Club, Adobe Creative Cloud, Nintendo Online, Apple Music, SoundCloud, Chegg, Crunchyroll, Audible, Sun Basket, Hulu, Spotify, Home Chef, Xbox Live, HelloFresh, Barkbox, Amazon Prime, CBS All Access, LinkedIn Premium, Coursera, PlayStation Live, HBO Max, Disney Plus, Blue Apron, Curology, FabFitFun, ESPN Plus, LeetCode, Birchbox, Ipsy and Billie. In addition to boosting credit scores, Altro is focused on educating users through its vast catalog of educational audio clips. The 350+ snippets cover topics like cryptocurrency, investing, and trading, which allow users to become financially savvy and also positively impact users’ scores the more they engage.The app, which launched as Perch in 2020, shot to the top 10 in the App Store amid a surge in sign-ups — amassing a 200,000 person waitlist — validating the need for a modernized, accessible approach to credit building. 13/05/2022
