Curu bags $3M in seed funding as the demand for credit skyrockets during the global pandemic

Curu, a Denver, Colorado-based fintech startup that helps lenders expand their total available market, reduce their customer acquisition costs and fund more loans by building their applicant’s eligibility, today announced it has closed $3 million in seed funding to scale its solution via integrations with banks, credit unions, and online lenders across North America.

The round was led by Vestigo Ventures, a leading fintech firm based in Boston, MA. Vestigo Ventures was joined by Harlem Capital, Matchstick Ventures, Carolina Fintech Ventures, Techstars Ventures, Holt Accelerator, Chingona Ventures, and Upscale Fund.

This round follows Curu’s pre-seed raise, which closed in September of 2019. In just nine months, Curu successfully repositioned its direct-to-consumer application to an integrated SaaS product offering for banks, lenders, and credit unions. In March, Curu went live with its first enterprise partner, Bank Novo, and has just launched with its second partner, LendKey this month.

Founded in 2017 by Abb Kapoor and David Potter, Curu has become one of the fast-growing technology providers with its application’s sophisticated algorithms designed to boost consumer credit scores and its innovative “Extended Approval Plan” and customized risk model. Curu is an automated lead recovery solution that enables lenders to fund more loans by building their applicant’s eligibility. With over $100B lost annually on abandoned leads, Curu’s white-labeled Approval Dashboard enables lenders to expand their total available market and reduce their customer acquisition costs by showing their applicants steps they can take in order to get approved.

Users link all of their accounts to their secured Curu profile and Curu’s engine calculates ways to improve the end-users credit score in order to help them meet eligibility requirements and get approved for financial products such as credit cards, personal loans, auto loans, and mortgages. Financial institutions contract with Curu to provide their clientele with a solution consisting of an individualized behavioral modification and a credit score improval program that generates new accounts. Curu helps solve the applicant retention problem for lenders by helping them to expand their total available market, reduce their customer acquisition costs, and fund more loans by improving applicant eligibility in as little as 90 days.

“Curu is on a mission to provide a path to financial wellness for those without one. Our B2B SaaS platform replaces lenders’ traditional rejection emails with a retention-driving Approval Dashboard where applicants can see where they fell short and follow customized steps toward eligibility,” said Abb Kapoor, Co-Founder, and COO.

“We are beyond excited to close this round and partner with our new investors. Each has unique expertise that complements Curu’s business objectives and goal to become the standard lead recovery solution for all lenders. As COVID-19 sweeps the globe, the need for credit has spiked, yet the bridge between lenders and borrowers is longer than ever before. The entire team is ready to make a massive impact on the lending space – improving outcomes for both lenders and applicants,” said David Potter, Co-Founder and CEO.