Credit Kudos is a U.K. challenger credit bureau that analyses customers’ bank account transaction data via open banking to build more accurate pictures of financial health and creditworthiness. The company offers a platform lenders can integrate to use open-banking data in existing underwriting workflows, aiming to reduce defaults, speed decisions, and lower assessment costs versus less scalable methods. Credit Kudos says its approach gives borrowers control over sharing bank data and can reach customers who are underserved by traditional credit scores. Last year the startup onboarded more than 50 new lenders, including FTSE100 firms, independent credit unions and community finance vendors, and has partnerships with ClearScore, CarFinance 247, and Mojo Mortgages. Its revenue model charges lenders a monthly fee based on the volume of transactions processed. The company is led by co-founders and executives Freddy Kelly (CEO) and Matt Schofield (CTO), and positions itself as the first regulated challenger in the market putting control in borrowers’ hands. The business recently raised external capital in a Series A to support growth and platform adoption. Credit Kudos operates an Open Banking-based platform that provides lenders, brokers and financial institutions with transparent scoring based on consumer-consented account data. The company aims to advance financial inclusion by delivering a fairer representation of individual creditworthiness. Credit Kudos is an FCA-authorised credit bureau and an Open Banking Account Information Service Provider (AISP). It was co-founded by software engineers Freddy Kelly and Matt Schofield and launched its Open Banking platform in January 2018. The startup plans to use new capital to drive further growth in the UK, support expansion into Europe and invest further in its platform. The company sells its scoring and data services commercially to financial-sector customers.

Total raised

$9M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Series A

Latest activity

Apr 2020