Fintech startup Aura reaches a major milestone with disbursement of 500,000th affordable loan to hard-working Americans

We wrote about Aura back in October when the fintech startup secured $130 million credit facility to provide affordable loans to hard-working Americans. Today, Aura announced it has reached a new milestone with disbursement of  500,000th loan to needy families across America.

In a time when millions of working families in America lack access to safe and affordable loans and are
vulnerable to predatory lenders. Aura is able to provide borrowers with affordable loans that have saved them $400 million in additional fees and interest by avoiding predatory options. Additionally, two-thirds of Aura’s borrowers have grown their credit score by an average of 285 points from their first to second loan.

Since launching in 2014, Aura has provided more than $672 million in credit-building loans to borrowers at approximately 1,250 partner locations using technology that enables local businesses to administer loan applications. Currently, Aura’s average loan size is around $1,400.

“This major milestone comes at a time of rapid growth for our company,” said Aura CEO James Gutierrez. “We’ve now approved half a million loans for individuals with no or low credit with very low losses. Our loans not only help build credit scores, but they also instill dignity and respect among our borrowers and hope for their financial futures.”

Separately, Deloitte recently named Aura to its Technology Fast 500 list, which identifies the fastest growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences and energy tech companies in North America. Aura was ranked #39 in the Bay Area and #235 nationally. Additionally, the San Francisco Business Times named Aura to its Top 100 fastest-growing private companies list for the second year in a row. Last year, Aura was #23, and this year the
company jumped up six spots to #17.

“This recognition is a sign of Aura’s continued momentum as more families see how our affordable loans can help them achieve their dreams,” said Gutierrez. “I want to thank the entire Aura team. You are the best in the business, and this recognition would not have been possible without all of your hard work.”

Founded in 2012 by James Gutierrez, Kevin Kang, and Randy Wong, Aura is a technology-powered, Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) that provides small, affordable loans to working families in America. Its mission is to build financially healthy low-income communities, by providing empowering financial services to America’s 66-million underbanked and unbanked. Aura has pioneered a cloud-based lending technology that enables trusted local businesses to submit credit applications for centralized review and approval by its proprietary scoring algorithms. Aura is currently available in nearly 1,200 locations across California, Texas, Illinois and Arizona.