The online lending software company Zest has raised more than $50 million in its latest growth round co-led by Insight Partners and CMFG Ventures, the company announced Tuesday.
Zest will use the funding to scale its AI-based credit underwriting platform. The company says its underwriting software increases transparency and reduces bias in the underwriting process.
"We're working to build a better future for the financial services ecosystem where underwriting is swift, equitable and frictionless across the United States," Mike de Vere, Zest AI's chief executive, said in a press release. "Our work is to help our customers efficiently and confidently approve more loans — creating economic opportunities for all consumers."
The growth round of funding also included CU Direct, Suncoast Credit Union, Golden1 Credit Union and Hawaii USA Federal Credit Union, among others.
The company, which has built more than 250 AI-underwriting models, projects it will nearly double its customer base in 2022 after tripling the metric in 2021. Clients include Citibank, First National Bank of Omaha and Truist.
Zest trains machine learning to broaden data sources in efforts to reduce bias. It
Lonne Jaffe, managing director at Insight Partners, said in the news release that Zest uses more features in its prediction system to issue "more loans, take less risk and be more inclusive." Mike Kraus, principal at CMFG Ventures, said in a prepared statement that Zest allows credit unions to access more affordable credit across credit tiers.
Flo told American Banker last year that
Insight Partners, which has more than $80 billion of assets under management, invests in software across the globe. CMFG is the venture capital arm of CUNA Mutual Group, which works with credit unions on financial products and services.
