Credit Karma is an American multinational personal finance company, founded on August 16, 2006, by Kenneth Lin, Ryan Graciano and Nichole Mustard. It is best known as a free credit and financial management platform, but its features also include free tax preparation, monitoring of unclaimed property databases and a tool to identify and dispute credit report errors.
All of Credit Karma's services are free to consumers. Revenue from targeted advertisements for financial products offsets the costs of its free products and services. Credit Karma is paid by lenders for successful recommendations.
Video Credit Karma
Products and services
Credit Karma provides free credit scores and credit reports from national credit bureaus TransUnion and Equifax, alongside daily credit monitoring from TransUnion. Users can see updates to their credit scores and credit reports on Credit Karma once a week.
Credit Karma also provides credit tools, such as a Credit Score Simulator, which simulates the effect of potential financial actions on a user's credit score; and tailored financial recommendations based on each individual user's credit profile.
In addition to its free credit reports and tools, Credit Karma offers a My Spending Tool through account aggregation service Yodlee, which allows users to track their banking, credit card and loan balances and transactions within Credit Karma. Credit Karma also hosts user forums and financial product reviews and financial calculator tools.
In 2015, Credit Karma began its "My Money Story" campaign, in which the company encouraged customers to share their experiences on often taboo financial matters openly with the world using the social media hashtag "#MyMoneyStory". The company produced several short films about individuals and their personal financial experiences.
In December 2016, Credit Karma announced Credit Karma Tax, its tax preparation online service that allows most Americans to file their federal and state taxes at no cost. On June 28, 2017, the company announced it filed 1 million tax returns in its debut tax season in six months.
On May 9, 2017, Credit Karma launched Unclaimed Money in seven states. The product that helps users find unclaimed money, such as unclaimed refunds and insurance payouts.
Maps Credit Karma
Founder and investors
Kenneth Lin, who previously founded Multilytics Marketing and worked with E-Loan and Upromise, launched Credit Karma in 2007, with the website going live in February 2008. Early investors include Chris Larson, CEO of Prosper, and Mark Lefanowicz, former president of E-Loan.
In November 2009, Credit Karma closed a $2.5 million Series A funding round led by QED Investors with participation from SV Angel, Felicis Ventures and Founders Fund. In 2013, Credit Karma secured $30 million in Series B funding led by Ribbit Capital and Susquehanna Growth Equity. In March 2014, Credit Karma raised $85 million in Series C financing, led by Google Capital with participation from Tiger Global Management and existing investors. The company followed that with $75 million in follow on funding in September 2014 from Google Capital, Tiger Global Management and Susquehanna Growth Equity.
As of 2015, Credit Karma has raised $368.5 million in financing, at a valuation of $3.5 billion.
See also
- Credit score in the United States
- Comparison of free credit report websites
References
External links
- CreditKarma.com Official Site
Source of article : Wikipedia