Esusu Becomes One of the First Black-Owned Startups to Reach Unicorn Status; Raises Series B at $1 Billion Valuation With Vision to Bridge Racial Wealth Gap

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Esusu Financial Inc.

Thu, Jan 27, 2022, 1:41 PM 4 min read

HARLEM, N.Y., Jan. 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Esusu, the leading financial technology company for rent reporting and data solutions for credit building, today announced a new valuation of $1 billion after closing a $130 million round of funding. The funding round was led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 with participation from Jones Feliciano Family Office, Lauder Zinterhofer Family Office, Motley Fool Ventures, Schusterman Foundation, SoftBank Group's SB Opportunity Fund, Related Companies, and Wilshire Lane Capital. This fundraise makes Esusu one of the few Black-owned startups to reach unicorn status both in the United States and globally.

Esusu’s Series A round led by Motley Fool Ventures Managing Partner Ollen Douglass positioned the company to accelerate market adoption and become the leading platform in the sector, growing the company close to 600% year-over-year in 2021. With plans to triple its employees, Esusu will use the Series B capital infusion to scale the team, turbocharge growth through product innovation, and build the most comprehensive financial health platform in the market.

“We founded Esusu with the vision of using data to bridge the racial wealth gap and create more equitable financial opportunities for low-to-moderate-income households in this country,” said Abbey Wemimo and Samir Goel, Co-Founders of Esusu. “By establishing and improving credit scores, we are strengthening financial identities while empowering individuals, families, and communities to meet their long-term financial goals.”

Existing investors include Concrete Rose Capital, The Equity Alliance, Impact America Fund, Next Play Ventures, Serena Ventures, Sinai Ventures, and TypeOne Ventures. They each doubled down on their prior investment in Esusu—bringing the company’s total funding to over $144 million.

Credit is fundamental to financial stability and upward mobility, but financial exclusion makes the American dream unattainable for millions. Every month, over 109 million Americans spend on average $1,100 in rent (over $1.44 trillion annually) which is often their largest monthly household expense. Despite this, over 90% of renters do not get credit for paying rent on time, leading to financial exclusion. Esusu bridges this gap by reporting on-time rent payments to the three major credit bureaus, (Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian) helping renters across the nation establish and improve their credit scores to unlock quality financial products.

“By using alternative data to enhance credit scores, Esusu can open up financial opportunities for millions of underserved American households,” said Vikas Parekh, Managing Partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers. “We believe that Esusu has built a leading rental reporting and financial platform through partnerships with renters, property owners, and lenders that can become the central data hub for consumer financial health. We are thrilled to partner with Samir Goel, Abbey Wemimo and the team to support their vision to generate equitable financial access for everyone.”

Today, Esusu is available in 2.5 million homes representing over $3 billion in Gross Lease Volume nationwide. Esusu works with 35% of the largest landlords on the National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC) list. Partners include BH Companies, Camden Property Trust, Cushman & Wakefield (formerly Pinnacle), GoldOller, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Harbor Group, L+M Development Partners, Jonathan Rose Companies, Morgan Properties, Related Companies, Starwood Capital Group, Stoneweg, Winn Residential, and more. The company recently announced a joint initiative with Freddie Mac Multifamily in November, in which Freddie Mac will provide closing cost credits to its borrowers using Esusu.

Founded in 2018, Esusu operates on the premise that where you come from, the color of your skin, and your financial identity should never determine where you end up in life. Growing up in immigrant families in the U.S. without a financial or credit footprint, co-founders Abbey Wemimo and Samir Goel both experienced financial exclusion firsthand. They built the company with a mandate to empower the 45 million Americans who don’t have credit scores and the millions more who are marginalized due to background, race, and zip code.

About Esusu
Esusu is the leading financial technology platform that leverages data solutions to empower residents and improve property performance. Esusu's rent reporting platform captures rental payment data and reports it to credit bureaus to boost credit scores. This allows renters to build and establish their credit scores while helping property owners mitigate against initiating evictions, powered by differentiated data and insights. Founded in 2018, Esusu reaches over 2.5 million rental units across all 50 states in the United States. Learn more at www.esusurent.com and follow us on Facebook @myesusu and on Twitter @getesusu.

Press Contacts:

Chanel Cathey
Esusu
press@esusu.org

Tess Roy
tess@smallgirlspr.com