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Abound
Personal loans & SaaS credit decisioning platform
- 21-100 employees
- Fintech
- B2C
- Credit Scoring
- B2B
- Lending
- Financial Services
- SaaS
- 3rd Floor, Mill Street, London, SE1 2BA
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Company mission
To make affordable loans available to more people. We have built award-winning technology to look beyond credit scores and offer fair credit to people ignored by traditional lenders.
Insights
Otta's take
Theo Margolius
COO of Otta
Borrowers in the UK have been consistently over-charged in recent years, with lenders rejecting requests mostly on the basis of poor credit histories. Through Open Banking, Abound (formerly Fintern) is working to build a different approach that evaluates live transaction data, usually ignored by traditional lenders, in order to offer loans at more favourable prices.
Traditional banks are also slowly starting to use Open Banking data for income verification while other emerging firms, like Abound, are using it to support underwriting decisions. The company's technique allows it not to exclude people with limited or poor credit history and, instead, aims at defining a repayment plan that borrowers can realistically sustain over time.
A forward-looking approach is strongly needed in the lending industry, with the main improvement being the consideration in lending decisions of each customer's current circumstances and recent history. The challenge for Abound in the near future is to effectively exploit machine learning, technology and Open Banking Data while differentiating from the rest of the industry with its own customer-centric approach.
Benefits
- Everyone owns a piece of the company 📈Equity
- 25 days’ holiday a year, plus 8 bank holidays
- Save up to 60% on an electric vehicle through our salary sacrifice scheme with Loveelectric
- We offer all employees an affordable loan of up to £10k. The amount you can borrow may vary slightly, depending on your personal situation.
- Regular team lunches and events
- We invest in your training to help you grow in your career. Learn a new programming language. Sharpen those communication skills
- Free gym membership at the Circle Gym & Spa
- Free breakfast and snacks in the office. We’ll even cover your dinner if you’re working late
- Birthday cake in the office on your birthday
- Team wellness budget to be active together - set up a yoga class, a tennis lesson or go bouldering
- 2 paid volunteering days per year to all employees with the company charity - Spread a Smile
Company values
- Our customers come first
- We are all owners
- We move fast but thoughtfully
- We win as a team
Funding (last 2 of 3 rounds)
Mar 2023
$311.8m
GROWTH EQUITY VC
Feb 2022
$10.2m
SERIES A
$342m
Total funding
This company has top investors
Founders
Gerald Chappell
(CEO)Ex-Partner at McKinsey and EY. After leading McKinsey’s Digital Lending practice globally, they got frustrated with how slow banks were at adopting AI and new technology - it was time for a change.
Dr. Michelle He
(COO)Ex-Director at EY with a PhD in Machine Learning. 15 years of experience in financial services convinced them that another way of doing credit was possible.
Diversity & Inclusion at Abound
Dr. Michelle He (Co-founder and COO)
- We've always wanted to build the best possible team, regardless of accent, gender or background. Our team at Abound is diverse at every level. We help each other and work as a team to achieve our shared mission.
