US credit card firm Deserve raises $17m funding
US-based credit card company Deserve has raised $17 million in Series C funding for its Generation Z ambitions.
You Deserve it
The round was led by an unnamed investor, with additional participation from Accel, Aspect Ventures, Pelion Ventures, Mission Holdings, Alumni Venture Group and GDP Venture.
The company will use the funding to scale its platform and infrastructure as it targets 40 million college students and young adults in the US with its credit offerings. Back in April, it got $50 million in debt financing.
Kalpesh Kapadia, CEO and founder of Deserve, says it has introduced its perks programme and mobile app in tandem to raising its “largest equity round to date”.
Kapadia adds that the firm offers a cloud-first infrastructure powered by machine learning to originate, process, and service credit cards.
Deserve’s app includes a financial literacy section comprised of credit education, videos and blogs to help users.
The company cites findings from Experian, which says Generation Z accounts for 25% of the US population and is projected to make up 40% of consumers by 2020.
Experian also reports that members of Generation Z are more likely to pay off their monthly balances, and have higher average credit scores, than millennials aged 21-27.
According to Deserve, it has been used by “tens of thousands of customers” from over 160 countries at over 1,800 universities across all 50 states.
