FinTech Ribbit Announces Series A Funding Round

Ribbit, the AI-powered financial data and tech company, which provides instant bank behavior analytics, has announced Series A funding, a press release said Tuesday (March 15).

The money will go towards supporting growth and accelerating the company’s hiring plans.

ABS Capital led the round, and there was also participation from other financial service industry experts.

ABS Capital works with promising software and services providers making strides in finance.

The report noted that the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, almost 50 million Americans don’t have a credit score and can’t access products for lending or other finance services, and the pandemic made all of that worse.

Ribbit was formed in 2020 and the release said the company wants to combat those problems, and better assess risk and fraud.

“Unique circumstances have created an opportunity for Ribbit to make an impact,” said Shawn Princell, CEO of Ribbit. “We find ourselves at the intersection of unexplored economic shifts, dramatic changes in financial health, and exciting new opportunities in open banking.”

PYMNTS wrote that undocumented workers, often cut off from the financial system in the U.S., have a hard time getting a nonpredatory car loan.

According to Daniel Chu, Tricolor Holdings founder and CEO, himself the son of immigrants, he could relate to the “desire to come to the U.S. and build a better life.” He said his company was founded to try and address challenges like mobility access.

Read more: Undocumented, Unbanked Consumers Turn to Data-Rich Finance Allies for Auto Loans

Tricolor is one of the many companies working on more access to loans for the underbanked or unbanked.

Chu told PYMNTS that credit scores and pay stubs, while usually important elements for auto loan underwriting, aren’t the only attributes that can assess loan-worthiness.