SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Credible Labs, Inc., the leading independent marketplace for student loan refinancing, announces it has closed the final $1.5M tranche of a $2.7M seed financing, paving the way for further accelerated growth. Investors include Carthona Capital, Cthulhu Ventures and Redbus Group. The additional funding will be utilized to expand Credible’s team and build out user-friendly features that will help millennials in making informed decisions about their finances.
Unlike many new companies entering the student loan space, Credible is not a lender, rather, an independent matchmaker between borrowers and lenders, giving recent graduates an easy way to determine if they are paying too much interest on their existing loans. The company provides much needed transparency for borrowers and enables recent graduates and young professionals to shop and compare offers from multiple lenders. Borrowers saved an average of $11,688 by refinancing through Credible in 2014.
“Often graduates are either uninformed about the existence of refinancing options or misinformed that there are only one or two lenders in the market,” explains Credible Founder and CEO, Stephen Dash. “By providing borrowers with a single, simple application and the ability to compare offers in one location, we’re not only empowering them with knowledge of multiple refinancing options, but we’re also contributing to the creation of a more dynamic market that is receptive to an informed consumer. Longer term, we think this will mean a more competitive industry and more affordable debt.”
Credible’s efforts are a significant step given that outstanding student debt in the U.S. tops $1.3 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve. This total debt, owed by almost 40 million Americans, has surpassed credit card debt and is second only to housing debt. Not only is this indicative of the strain on borrowers, but also the broader impact that student loans can have on the economy as a whole, with further implications for housing affordability and general consumer spending as borrowers continue to be tied to high interest student loans.
Credible’s success hasn’t been limited to benefits for its users. “Over the last 12 months, Credible has also seen significant growth in lender participation in our platform,” said Dash. “More lenders are providing student loan refinancing options, but the benefits are not realized unless qualified graduates can easily find loans on terms that best meet their needs, like specific loans for physicians or graduated repayment structures. We are removing friction from the process, and giving lenders access to the exact types of borrowers they want to underwrite.”
About Credible
Winner of LAUNCH 2.0 at San Francisco’s LAUNCH Festival, Credible is the easy way for graduates to reduce their student loan payments. Credible provides an independent, transparent marketplace where graduates receive personalized offers from multiple lenders to refinance their student loans.
