US fintech funding round-up: Credora, Summer & Yelo
This week’s handy Friday funding round-up includes three US-based fintech start-ups: Credora, Summer and Yelo.
New York-based lending infrastructure provider Credora has bagged $6 million in a funding round with S&P Global and Coinbase Ventures as lead investors.
The round also included participation from Spartan, Amber Group, CMT Digital, Hashkey, GSR, KuCoin Ventures, Paradigm, Pirata Capital, Breed VC, and WAGMI Ventures.
Founded in 2019, Credora provides lending infrastructure and systematic credit ratings for private credit markets. Through “privacy-preserving” technology, it claims to improve lenders’ ability to evaluate credit risk in real-time, and has facilitated over $1 billion in loans across various borrower types.
With the new funding, which brings its total raised so far to $16 million, it plans to build “institutional rails for credit” and improve its private computational tech that helps in accurately underwriting and monitoring borrowers.
New York-based fintech start-up Summer, which aims to help people reduce their student debt, has secured $6 million in a Series A extension led by General Catalyst and QED Investors.
Summer bags $6m
Also participating were Flourish Ventures, Greycroft, Story Ventures, Gaingels, Calm VC, Partnership Fund for NYC, Fenway Summer, BDMI, and Avidbank. The new money brings its total capital raised to date to $18 million.
Founded in 2017, Summer aims to alleviate student loan debt for borrowers by providing solutions such as college cost planning, automated enrolment for loan assistance plans, tuition assistance, student loan contributions and retirement matching, and emergency savings.
With the funding, it plans to onboard more customers and expand its reach through partnerships with financial institutions. The firm has also appointed Leigh Gross as its new chief revenue officer.
Another New York-based fintech firm Yelo Funding which provides students with a college financing solution, has received $1.2 million in a pre-seed funding round.
The funding will be used to launch the company’s operations in select markets and provide financing for students’ college tuition, room and board.
Yelo uses an alternative approach to lending, through a financial instrument called Income Share Agreement (ISA) – a contract for a fixed percentage share in a student’s future salary.
