Hot on the heels of it bringing its Series B round to a hefty $125m in July, Thought Machine has now been tapped to power Curve’s new credit and loan startup Curve Credit.
Thought Machine is a cloud native core banking technology company. The deal will see it combine its offering with Curve’s payment solutions, resulting in customers being able to pay for purchases in instalments, just as the buy now, pay later market is heating up.
Curve Credit customers will be able to apply credit both retrospectively and prospectively by utilising Thought Machine’s core platform and Curve’s ‘Go Back in Time’ technology.
Furthermore, Curve Credit will augment customer credit scores using their transaction history across various bank accounts, aiming to give customers greater transparency and flexibility in the borrowing decisions they make.
“Unbeatable financial services organisations are those which embrace modern, cloud native technology, like Curve,” said Paul Taylor, CEO of Thought Machine. “We look forward to working alongside Shachar [Bialick, Curve’s founder and CEO,], Paul [Harrald], and the Curve team, to bring this truly unseen proposition to the market. Our teams share a passion for building expertly-engineered products that give customers choice and flexibility in managing their finances, and to do so in a meaningful way.”
Harrald, head of Curve Credit, shared the excitement. “Thought Machine is the only technology that allows us to deliver the flexibility and manageability we desired for our customers,” he said. “Curve Credit’s ethos is about responsible lending and responsible borrowing. Alongside Curve OS, this three-way dynamic will be able to give each customer the clearest possible terms via a simple and beautiful product and experience.”
The news comes as the buy now, pay later market is heating up. For instance, Swedish unicorn Klarna raise a massive $650m round in September that turned it into Europe’s most valuable FinTech company at a $10.65bn valuation.
Moreover, PayPal launched a similar instalments solution in the US in September, which was launched in the UK last week.
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