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Deserve Inc.

195 Page Mill Road, Palo Alto, California, 94306, United States

Overview

Deserve offers a highly configurable, cloud-native credit card platform that enables partners to rapidly deploy white-label and co-branded card programs using APIs and SDKs. The company uses machine learning and alternative data to provide underwriting solutions that expand financial access. Deserve has launched programs for partners including BlockFi, M1 Finance, OppFi, Seneca Women, Notre Dame Global Partnerships, and KrowdFit. It plans to roll out card programs that help consumers manage subscriptions, augment BNPL, unlock home equity, and serve SMB and commercial customers. Financially, Deserve completed a $50 million Series D in October 2021 and reported 650% growth in transaction volume and 800% growth in receivables in 2021. The company has received recognition from Financial Times/Statista, Tearsheet, LendIt, and Inc. for its growth and platform. Deserve provides a mobile-centric, highly configurable credit-card-as-a-service platform powered by APIs and SDKs that lets partners apply, activate and provision cards in digital wallets within minutes. The platform leverages machine learning and alternative data to deliver underwriting that expands financial access for consumers. Deserve partners with banks, fintechs, brands, universities and associations to develop and rapidly deploy white-label and co-branded card programs. It has integrated with Visa instant issuance and focuses on differentiated reward structures, including nontraditional rewards such as crypto. Earlier this year Deserve and Visa partnered with BlockFi to launch a crypto rewards credit card that has seen immediate adoption. The company is venture-backed and positions its product to scale embedded, mobile-first card programs for financial institutions and consumer brands. Deserve offers a credit card-as-a-service platform that replaces traditional plastic cards with mobile-first, API/SDK-enabled software for instant issuance, wallet provisioning and embedded card programs. The platform uses machine learning and AI across the cardholder lifecycle and enhanced underwriting that leverages income and employment data beyond FICO to improve approvals and portfolio performance. Deserve’s modular services include omnichannel customer support, business analytics for portfolio management, and integrations via Mastercard’s Digital First Program for secure instant issuance. Its customers and partners include banks, fintechs and brands such as Sallie Mae, BlockFi, OppFi, Seneca Women and Notre Dame cards. The company says the product suite can power differentiated rewards (including crypto rewards) and enable rapid deployment of white-label and co-branded credit card programs. Financially, Deserve announced a $50 million Series D to accelerate its roadmap and scale the credit card stack for partners. Deserve is a Menlo Park, CA-based real-time credit card company that provides a platform for partners to launch and underwrite tailored credit card products. The company uses machine learning and alternative data to underwrite customers for specific target audiences and offers a mobile financial management app with credit education, cashback rewards and incentive programs from Mastercard, Amazon and Priority Pass. Deserve partners with universities, associations, financial institutions, fintechs and consumer brands to develop, deploy and power white-label and co-branded card programs. Led by CEO and co-founder Kalpesh Kapadia, the company serves clients including Sallie Mae, the New Jersey Institute of Technology and Honor Society. Deserve secured $50M in equity funding to further develop its offering, hire engineers and data scientists, build out platform infrastructure, tools, APIs and machine-learning capabilities, and expand its B2B sales and marketing division. The round was led by Goldman Sachs with participation from existing backers Accel, Aspect Ventures, Pelion Venture Partners, Sallie Mae and Mission Holdings. Deserve is an analytics-based financial technology company that uses machine learning and alternative data to help people build credit and achieve financial independence. Led by founder and CEO Kalpesh Kapadia and based in Menlo Park, CA, the company offers credit products and recently introduced a mobile app for cardholders to manage finances, build credit, and earn rewards. The app includes a financial literacy section with credit education, videos, and blogs. Deserve is partnering with key partners to launch a perks program that provides access to MasterCard Premium benefits such as car rental collision damage waiver, travel assistance, extended warranty, roadside assistance, price protection, and ID theft protection. It has served tens of thousands of customers from over 160 countries and at more than 1,800 universities across all 50 states. The company intends to use the funding to further scale its platform and infrastructure.

Total raised
$386M
Funding rounds
7
Latest round
Debt Financing
Latest activity
May 2022

Industries

  • Credit
  • Credit Cards
  • Financial Services
  • FinTech
  • Mobile Payments
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Recent funding

  1. Debt Financing

    May 2022

    $250M

  2. Series D

    Jun 2021

    $50M

  3. Series C

    Nov 2019

    $50M

  4. Series C

    Aug 2018

    $17M

  5. Equity

    Oct 2017

    $12M

Team

  • Kalpesh Kapadia

    Co-Founder and CEO

    LinkedIn
  • Neeraja Prahalad

    Chief Platform Officer

    LinkedIn
  • Vikash Mishra

    Senior Software Engineer

    LinkedIn
  • Rajan Annadurai

    Chief Technology Officer

    LinkedIn