Petal raises $35M, spins off data unit ‘to bring credit scores into the 21st century’
Petal, which offers three Visa credit card products aimed at underserved consumers, has said its goal is to help people “build credit, not debt.” It does this by using cash flow underwriting to help assess applicants’ creditworthiness — and also using credit scores when they’re available. To be clear, Petal is not itself a bank. Its cards are issued by WebBank, a member of the FDIC, but they’re Petal branded and the startup manages servicing for the cards.
Today, the company is announcing it has raised an additional $35 million in what CEO and co-founder Jason Rosen is describing as “strategic financing.” Part of that money will go toward spinning out the Prism Data unit of its business into an independent company. Rosen will serve as CEO of that new entity as well, which has about 10 employees, while Petal has about 140.
