Key Takeaways:
Credit Karma is your very own personal financial adviser. It keeps track of your spending, updates you with your credit score, and provides a detailed report. They also have services like tax filing, credit score simulators, and credit card purchases, etc.
They are partner with highly reputable bureaus like TransUnion and Equifax. Credit Karma compiles its Vantage Score that acts as a good reference range. Their services are free of cost. They require some basic information at the beginning of your profile. Your credit card information is not required to avail of their services, and all information you provide is highly confidential.
Company Profile:
| Company Name | Credit Karma, Inc© |
| Website | creditkarma.com |
| Founded- In: | 2007 |
| Headquarters: | San Francisco Bay Area, West Coast, Western US |
| Founder | Kenneth Lin, Ryan Graciano, Nichole Mustard |
| Key People | Kenneth Lin (CEO), Ryan Graciano (Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder), Nichole Mustard (Chief Revenue Officer and Co-Founder), Greg Lull (Chief Marketing Officer), Susannah Wright (Chief Legal Officer), Ganesh Bharadwaj (General Manager of Credit Cards), Colleen McCreary (Chief People Officer), Joseph Kauffman (President), Floyd Fernandes (Chief Security Officer) |
| Business Model | Online personal Financial Services |
| Product/Services | Credit scores Credit reports Credit monitoring Tax preparation |
| Revenue | $545 million to $580 million in 2020 |
| Competitors | Quizzle, Credit Sesame, Mint, NerdWallet, MyFICO, Experian, TransUnion, Equifax, Credit.com, Capital Oversight. |
Introduction:
Credit Karma is both your ultimate financial record keeper plus advisor in one. In partnership with leading financial conglomerates, it displays your credit score to the best of its accuracy based on the information provided; then, it helps you maintain your score in a good range by giving you advice and opportunities to make sound financial decisions.
All services are free of cost. There is no denying that Credit Karma fulfills a dire need for citizens who greatly struggle with managing everyday finances and are oblivious as to why they are constantly being denied large purchases by lenders over their credit score.
Credit karma analyzes your spending and provides you with a personalized Relief Roadmap to better navigate your finances. They even offer a Credit Score Simulator that simulates the effect of potential financial actions on your credit score.
Credit Karma learns from your profile and generates an algorithm that provides their partnered lenders with valuable information, helping them display targeted content to your profile. Credit Karma generates its revenue by receiving a small portion of its consumers’ purchases through the targeted content on their profile.
What is Credit Karma Business Model?
You can think of Credit Karma as your financial expert. Especially in today’s day and age, a lot of value is put into your credit score. Our day-to-day life goes through making random and rash financial decisions without keeping any kind of record, and this is where Credit Karma steps in. A free of cost, personal finance service that helps you bring some order in the chaos of your finances.
Whether you buy a house or a car or anything these days, your credit score is held top priority. It’s considered to represent how responsible one can be when it comes to one spending. And we all know that we all have times of the year where we spend rashly and find it hard to keep track. Credit Karma provides you with your credit score and credit report entirely for free. This helps you to know where you lie what changes you need to make.
Why should you use Credit Karma?
Consumers often wonder why it’s necessary to use Credit Karma when at the concerned time any lender can access your credit information themselves. Credit Karma helps you be constantly aware of your credit score, and it is in contact with the leading bureaus like TransUnion and Equifax.
Based on all your information, it generates its Vantage score. And more than that, if you start responsibly using Credit Karma and keep track of your score, the website will provide you with information and tips on where you are lacking and how to improve your score.
With credit Karma, everyone can be their own financial wizard. It eliminates the consumer’s uncertainty and concerns by making them fully aware of their shortcomings and requirements.
Services:
- Credit report and free credit score from TransUnion and Equifax
- Daily credit monitoring from TransUnion
- Targeted financial recommendations
- Credit Score Simulator that simulates the impact of potential financial actions on a user’s credit score
- Free Tax filing opportunity through Credit Karma Tax
- personalized Relief Roadmap
- Loans
- Credit Card
A Short History of Credit Karma Business Model:
Ryan Graciano and Nichole Mustard, and Kenneth Lin launched Credit Karma in 2007. The website officially went live in 2008. The purpose was always to equip each person with the basic knowledge of its finances. Some initial investors of Credit Karma were Chris Larson, CEO of Prosper, and Mark Lefanowicz, former president of E-Loan.
On December 30, 2015, Credit Karma acquired mobile notifications app developer. The company also increased its workforce and opened offices in Los Angeles. In December 2020, Intuit acquired Credit Karma for approximately $8 billion.
What is the Business Model of Credit Karma Business?
Credit Karma is a free online personal finance service. Credit Karma has its own website containing every detail about its services. The website is easy to navigate and allows users to sign up easily without divulging too much information. You need your name, and the last four digits of your social and your profile are good to go. They do not need your credit card information from the get-go.
Credit Karma services are specifically focused on fulfilling their consumers’ every financial requirement. They have predicted every possible necessity that can arise in a common tax-paying consumer and tried to overcome it to the best of their ability. As mentioned on the website, the most admirable sentiment of the company is its dedication to educate and empower each individual with basic financial management skills so that every consumer can make informed decisions.
Along with its website, Credit Karma also has its own very own mobile app. It’s available on both android and IOS. A mobile app itself is highly beneficial for consumers to use at their will. Its features and simulations are so designed that it’s easy to use yet still gives its users the freedom to navigate their own finances and make smart decisions.
Credit Karma has grown exponentially and received excellent recommendations due to its intelligent approach towards customer dealing. They provide some incredible services completely free of charge in return for very little information. The customer feels safe with the data provided, and soon they begin to notice a good change in their financial decisions. Where previously consumers needed to go through a hundred different platforms to perform their financial transactions, now tall such services are provided under one unit.
How Does Credit Karma Business Make Money?
Credit Karma offers its services for free to its customers, making consumers ask the questions, what’s in it for them? Of course, this partnership is not one-sided, and Credit Karma does look out for its own needs as well. Credit Karma generates its revenue through learning about your spending activity.
Credit Karma shows you specific advertisements significantly modified to your monetary activity and helps fulfill your every need. These targeted advertisements are actually lenders that are in partnership with Credit Karma. If a user of Credit Karma purchases an item by clicking on the ad shown to them while using their services, a small portion of that purchase is provided to Credit Karma as in their terms of the agreement.
This may sound like a small profit, but due to Credit Karma’s free and efficient services, they reach over a million users. This gives lenders the reach they need and Credit Karma the revenue they require to continue providing free services to its users. Credit Karma generates a robust algorithm that learns from your profile and provides you with any kind of services that you may require.
Overall this sums up to be a mutually beneficial partnership as Advertisers always require consumer information and consumers desire targeted content without divulging much information, so Credit Karma proves to be a safe intermediary for both parties as they put a high value on protecting customer information.
- Learning from your spending habits
- Showing targeted content
- Generating revenue
Credit Karma Business Funding, Valuation & Revenue:
Credit Karma is a personal finance company, and its main focus is about serving everyone who is making financial progress. Whether they’re interested in obtaining an improved deal on loan, trying to find ways to save, or simply keeping a record of their Credit, Credit Karma offers a wide range of tools and personalized recommendations designed to help them make the most of their Credit.
With more than 100 million members, Credit Karma helps individuals gain insight into their money and information about the Credit – and ultimately, improve their financial standing.
Credit Karma has raised $868 million over eight funding rounds, the most recent of March of 2018. The corporate at that time was valued at $4 billion. Its lead investors include Silver Lake Partners and SV Angel.
On December 3, 2020, Intuit Inc. (INTU), maker of Turbotax and QuickBooks, proclaimed that it had acquired Credit Karma for a total consideration of approximately $3.4 billion in cash and $4.7 billion in stock and equity awards.
