Credit card startup Petal has raised $34m in a new financing round to support the public roll-out of the Petal Visa credit card.
The investment was made by Jefferies, the global investment Bank, and Silicon Valley Bank.
New York-based Petal is a credit card platform that utilises machine learning technology to assess an individual, rather than using credit scores and borrowing history. The company aims to help Americans, that are considered as sub-prime and high-risk, access financing.
Its cashflow underwriting solution analyses real-time financial records, and creates credit decisions based on credit reports, education, occupation data. If the consumer does not have any credit history, the app uses their salary and bills they pay to build a risk profile.
There are two types of credit cards available through Petal, an intro card which has a credit limit of $300 to $500 and its Petal card which has a limit of between $500 and $10,000. Consumers can also access a debit card through the company.
Petal CEO and co-founder Jason Gross said, “Tens of millions of Americans have no credit score at all, and millions more have short credit histories that may not tell their entire financial stories.
“That’s a problem, since building credit is a necessity for many of life’s most important milestones, like buying your first car, starting a small business, or purchasing a home. We had more than 100,000 people join a waitlist this year to be among the first invited to apply for the Petal card, and this latest investment will go toward meeting that strong demand.”
Earlier in the year, the company picked up a $13m Series A round which was led by Valar Ventures. Other backers to the previous round included Third Prime Capital, RiverPark Ventures, and The Social Entrepreneurs’ Fund, among others.
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