Aire, which aims to make credit fairer for consumers, and more valuable to lenders, has closed a Series B round of funding from Crane Venture Partners, Experian Ventures and Orange Digital Ventures.
Since receiving Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) approval, the company has grown from a start-up with eight people to a fully-fledged operation with a headcount approaching 40. Along the way, it has forged numerous alliances with notable financial institutions such as Toyota Financial Services and online retailer N Brown, alongside high-street banks. These partnerships have underlined the versatility of Aire’s technology, which can be integrated at various stages of the credit lifecycle. To date, Aire’s sophisticated algorithmic model has scored over USD10 billion of credit across various categories of consumer credit, which gives a competitive advantage as the model improves with the data quantity and quality. Helping lenders access more customers without increasing their risk appetite, Aire has seen credit approvals increase by up to 19 per cent.
Aire Co-Founder and CEO, Aneesh Varma, says: “Aire is built on the premise that empowering consumers to play an active role in their credit assessment is the only way to give lenders a comprehensive view with which to make a decision. Since launching five years ago we have come a long way in bringing along the credit ecosystem: FCA regulation; scalable technology; proven uplift for lending partners; and funding. Today’s announcement is a significant milestone in the Aire journey and showcases how much the market is paying attention, with the support of the largest credit bureau. This Series B funding is allowing us to push the Aire philosophy further into new markets, such as the US, as well as new sectors.”
Krishna Visvanathan, founding partner at Crane Venture Partners, says, “We’ve worked closely with the Aire team since inception, investing in the company based on our firm belief in their vision to reimagine credit decisions for the 21st century. Aire’s unique contextual decision methodology combines direct consumer engagement, new data sources and its dynamic algorithmic model to provide lenders with a better way to evaluate and make credit decisions. Aire is yet another great example of a category-leading enterprise software company formed in Europe that is fundamentally changing an industry, and we are proud to support its new phase of growth.”
The foundation of Aire’s product is deep consumer credit risk knowledge combined with new consumer-supplied data, leveraging machine learning in a regulated environment. This unique combination is driving Aire’s market acceptance and has encouraged the funding from Crane Venture Partners, Experian Ventures, and Orange Digital Ventures.
The new round of investment follows the USD5.5 million Series A raised in July 2017 led by White Star Capital and Sunstone Capital, who also joined this round.
