Credit score business, Credit Karma, has bought Noddle from TransUnion, as the private equity-backed FinTech embarks on its UK expansion.
Noddle provides free access to credit scores and reports with more than 4 million members. Credit Karma has also announced plans to more than double Noddle’s workforce, from around 35 employees in London and Leeds. Noddle and its parent company Callcredit were bought by TransUnion earlier this year.
Alongside its credit scores, the company allows users to search the market to find the best credit cards and loans available based on their credit ratings.
The deal is expected to close in late 2018 or early 2019, subject to regulatory approval.
“We are driven by our mission to help people make financial progress. To truly deliver on this, we knew we needed to expand beyond North America,” said Credit Karma chief revenue officer and co-founder Nichole Mustard.
“The UK was an obvious next step and Noddle is the ideal partner to help us get there. We look forward to welcoming its more than 35 employees to the Credit Karma family.”
Earlier this year, Sliver Lake Partners made a $500m secondary investment in the business, giving Credit Karma an $4bn valuation. Silver Lake closed its fifth fund on $15bn this time last year, smashing its initial $12.5bn target. In August, the buyout major exited Quorum Software, a finance, operations and accounting software provider, to Thoma Bravo.
US-based Credit Karma is a personal finance platform that offers consumers a suite of tools to monitor and improve credit health, prepare and file income taxes, monitor their identities and manage vehicle information and financing options. Through data modelling the platform can analyse and identify the best financial products for users.
Credit Karma’s technology platform is used by more than 85 million members in North America.
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