Since Credit Karma first demonstrated its unique credit-monitoring service at Finovate Fall 2008 (video) and Finovate Spring 2009 (video), many changes have taken hold at the company.
New features
- June 2009: Financial advice center, which allows members to share experiences and questions with one another (see image 1).
- September 2009: a white-label platform currently in use by Sears/KMart among others (see Netbanker article) provides even more consumers with free credit-score information.
- February 2010: launches a free service that allows members to view how much they could save by refinancing their existing loan products (see our earlier post). The service works by evaluating the information on the user’s credit report and credit score. It runs in real-time, encouraging users to frequently return not only to check their score, but also their financial options (see image 2).
Future plans
According to Credit Karma, members continue to be frustrated by misleading credit-monitoring services and hard-to-understand financial products. “Our goal is to address each of these needs as we continue to build out the product,” said Nichole Mustard, Credit Karma’s VP of strategy. “In the near term, we’ll be launching more user-submitted areas that allow members to critique and review financial products. In the mid-term, we’ll expand our educational features to help more people understand credit scores and the financial services sector.”
What they are doing must be working. The company has doubled in size since spring 2009 and anticipates doubling again by year end. Credit Karma has 1.5 million members and is adding more than 100,000 each month. According to Compete, Credit Karma has more than 380,000 unique visitors per month (see chart below).
The company has received $3 million in funding since founding in May 2007, including $2.5 million in series B funding in fall 2009 (source).
anthonyuchung 