Credit Kudos raises £5m

Credit Kudos, the ‘challenger credit bureau’, has closed its £5m Series A funding round. 

Credit Kudos says it is the first challenger credit bureau to use open banking to replace traditional, credit assessment processes. This allows lenders to provide credit to borrowers who would have previously been declined or overlooked. 

The investment was led by AlbionVC with participation from TriplePoint, Plug & Play Ventures as well as existing backers Entrepreneur First and Ascension Ventures.

A number of fintech angel investors also participated including Christian Faes (LendInvest), Tom Stafford (DST Global Managing Partner), Charlie Delingpole (ComplyAdvantage and MarketInvoice), Will Neale (Grabyo & Fonix Mobile) and Daniel Gandesha (PropertyPartner).

In 2019 the company expanded its client base, adding over 50 new lenders ranging including ClearScore, CarFinance 247, and Mojo Mortgages, allowing customers to use their bank data to secure better offers across unsecured loans, car finance and mortgages.

Freddy Kelly, Founder and CEO of Credit Kudos says open banking will soon be the standard for credit assessment. 

“As the first regulated Credit Reference Agency with the capability to measure creditworthiness using open banking data alone, we are in a fantastic position to provide a service that is needed.” 

“With the FCA’s Credit Information Market Study on the horizon, the timing of this funding means we are now in an even stronger position to provide a real challenge to the incumbent credit reference agencies.” 

Ed Lascelles, Partner at AlbionVC, said: “The credit assessment sector has been crying out for change and now new technologies and practices such as open banking have made this possible."