Petal Raises $140 Million in Series D Funding

Petal, a new kind of credit card company created to help people build credit and spend responsibly, has announced that it has raised a $140 million Series D round of funding. This investment was led by Tarsadia Investments, with participation from Valar Ventures, CUNA Mutual, Encore Bank, Volery Capital Partners, Gopher Asset Management, RiverPark Ventures, Afore Capital, Gaingels, and a number of other new and existing investors.

“2021 was a breakout year for Petal,” said Jason Gross, Petal’s co-founder and CEO. “At a time when consumers faced unprecedented barriers to accessing credit, we bucked the trend—using our unique technology to expand access like never before.”

Petal also announced the hiring of Erin Allard, who previously held executive positions with Bloom Credit, Green Dot, and The Bancorp. Allard will lead its newly formed B2B data intelligence business, Prism Data, as general manager.

“The traditional credit system is broken and consumers are in desperate need of more modern and accessible financial products,” said Rishi Reddy, Head of Venture and Growth Investing at Tarsadia. “In addition to exponential user growth, Petal has proven the power of its tech as evidenced by stellar credit performance and the rapid scaling of Prism. We are excited to double down on Jason and the team as they pioneer a new way to accelerate financial inclusion.”

Petal was established to help people build credit, not debt, by providing access to high-quality Visa® credit cards (issued by WebBank, Member FDIC). People can qualify for Petal cards even if they’ve never used credit before. Instead of relying solely on credit scores, Petal has built proprietary technology that also analyzes banking history—measuring creditworthiness based on income, spending, and savings. This process, referred to as “CashScoring™”, measures cash flows and other economic fundamentals that aren’t typically considered in a credit approval decision. This helps more people qualify—even in today’s turbulent economy—and enables Petal to make credit accessible on terms tailored to each person’s unique financial situation. Over the past year, Petal tripled its user base and more than quadrupled its monthly revenue. Today, there are nearly 300,000 approved Petal credit cards, and the company has been adding 10,000 to 20,000 new members per month. Its team has grown as well; Petal now has more than 160 employees and has landed a string of top talent, including former CFPB executive Eli Corbett, who joined last March as its general counsel, and Ali Heron, as its head of engineering.

In addition, Petal has been successful in reaching customers that have been traditionally underserved, and helping them build towards a brighter financial future. A majority of Petal members had thin or no credit history when they first applied for a Petal card, and more than 40% of new members approved for a Petal card in 2021 were first denied credit by a major bank. Petal members who joined with no prior credit history have gone on to achieve an average credit score of 676—a “prime” score qualifying them for auto loans, mortgages and other financial opportunities previously out of their reach. This is made possible by the CashScore™, the company’s proprietary alternative to traditional credit scoring. The CashScore™ became a product of its own in 2021, as Petal announced the launch of its first B2B enterprise service, Prism Data. Prism is a next-generation data intelligence platform that translates raw transaction data into actionable insights and scores, making the innovative CashScore™ technology available to the broader market for the first time. Prism Data is founded on the belief that open banking, and access to consumer-permissioned bank account transactional data, will change the way consumer finance works—in credit, payments, banking, insurance, real estate, financial advising, and more. With this change, the credit score of the future will be a complete, real-time, and holistic assessment of a consumer’s financial position, including their income, cash flows, and assets, in addition to debt and repayment history. Prism Data exists to give financial providers the tools they need to create next-generation products and capabilities.

“We believe Prism Data and the CashScore are the future of consumer credit scoring,” said Gross. “Accurate, real-time, and holistic information provides the key to expanding access and lowering costs for consumers across the board. We have big plans for Prism in 2022, and we couldn’t be more confident about the prospects of this business under the leadership of our newest executive, Erin Allard. Erin is an innovator with a wealth of experience in both fintech and traditional banking. She’s also passionate about building a more fair and inclusive financial system.”

To date, Petal has raised more than $240 million in equity capital and more than $450 million in debt financing, from venture capitalists, impact investors, financial institutions, family offices, and investment banks.