Petal, a credit card startup pioneering “Cashflow Underwriting” as an alternative to traditional credit scoring, announced on Thursday it secured $55 million through its Series C funding round, which was led by Valar Ventures with participation from Rosecliff Ventures, Afore Capital, RiverPark Ventures, Great Oaks Venture Capital, GR Capital, Nelstone Ventures, Abstract Ventures, Ride Ventures, The Gramercy Fund, Adventure Collective, Starta Ventures, and NFL star Kelvin Beachum, Jr.
As previously reported, Petal was founded in 2016 and is on a mission to build a different kind of financial services company with a mission to make safe and affordable credit accessible to everyone.
“Petal is a credit card company built to help people succeed financially. Our credit card is designed with no fees (variable APRs range from 15.24-26.24%), no financial traps and doesn’t require you to have had any prior experience with credit. Our goal is to help Americans everywhere start building credit. Tens of millions of Americans have no credit score at all, and millions more have short credit histories that may not tell the whole story.”
The latest investment round notably brings Petal’s total equity funding amount to $100 million. Speaking about the company, said James Fitzgerald, a founding partner with Valar Ventures:
“[Petal has] created a better and more modern credit experience, and a game-changing technology platform that’s well-matched to these times. We’re happy to support them as they scale.”
Jason Gross, Petal’s CEO and Co-Founder, then added:
“Traditional credit scores have become less reliable in the COVID economy, forcing mainstream banks to significantly scale back access to credit at a time when many people need it most. Cash flow scoring allows Petal to continue making credit available even in these volatile economic conditions.”
