NerdWallet: We Have Not Filed for Bankruptcy

Financial guidance platform NerdWallet says it was the victim of a fraudulent bankruptcy filing.

As Reuters reported Saturday (March 2), the company said that it did not file for bankruptcy and that the filing that showed up on an electronic public access service for U.S. federal court documents was fraudulent.

“NerdWallet did not file for bankruptcy. This is a fraudulent filing and we are actively investigating the situation,” the company said in a statement.

The Reuters report noted that the filing was signed by Robert Johnson and included an address in Buffalo, New York, that appeared to belong to a residential property.

A spokesperson for NerdWallet confirmed the Reuters report in a statement to PYMNTS Sunday (Mar. 3) evening.

In other recent NerdWallet news, PYMNTS wrote last fall about the company’s launch of its first credit card, dubbed NerdUp.

“NerdWallet identified a major gap in the market that needed to be addressed — too many Americans are denied access to build and improve their credit, often because of current secured card terms, such as annual fees, high minimum deposits and hard credit checks,” the company said in a news release.

NerdUp, launched in partnership with Bond, offers several features that aim to remove barriers for consumers who want to establish credit.

“We don’t strive to offer our own financial products, but in this case we saw an opportunity to address a gap in the market,” NerdWallet CEO and Co-Founder Tim Chen said in the release. “With NerdUp, we believe we can create a win-win-win for consumers, traditional card issuers and NerdWallet.”

The company also teamed with embedded finance platform upSWOT last year to offer a set of “comprehensive financial solutions” to small businesses.

The last few weeks have seen some high-profile bankruptcies, including one for Thrasio Holdings, a once high-flying Amazon aggregator that filed for Chapter 11 last week.

“At a high level, the aggregators are built on the premise of acquiring private-label sellers that have been visible, successful and growing via Amazon,” PYMNTS wrote.

“In many cases, the platform may have been the key way these smaller storefronts were gaining sales. Selling a business to Amazon in the past couple of years, especially during COVID-19, might have seemed like a way to cash in on the rise of digital-only shopping. For the aggregators, the post-acquisition endeavor is one where they seek to optimize operations — and in some cases, branch onto other platforms.”

But things changed rapidly following the pandemic, with funding for these companies plunging by 88% between 2021 and 2022.