FinTech News

“Smart Wallet” Tool Kudos Raises $7 Million

A FinTech that aims to help online shoppers choose the best credit card for their purchase has just raised a significant early funding round. Recently, Kudos announced that it had raised $7 million as it launches its “smart wallet” browser extension. The seed round was led by Patron and included participation from QED Investors, SciFi VC, SV Angel, Precursor Ventures, Newtype Ventures, and Chingona Ventures. More than 40 angel investors also joined the round. With the funds, Kudos plans to further develop its product and also intends to launch cashback boosts among other features.

Kudos’ smart wallet is a browser extension that’s meant to help consumers maximize their credit card rewards. Users can link their existing credit cards so that the extension can inform them which will be the most beneficial to them at check-out given the rewards their cards offer. Additionally, in some cases, the service may recommend a different card they can get if they want to get the best rewards for a given site going forward. Currently, Kudos says it supports more than 3,000 reward credit card options.

In a press release, Kudos notes that, since its beta began earlier this year, the platform has seen downloads increase an average of 36% month over month. Moreover, the service has been used to purchase $4.5 million in annualized checkout gross merchandise volume. According to the company, it now also supports checkout on more than one million websites.

Commenting on the idea behind Kudos and the impact this seed round will have on the platform, the startup’s co-founder and CEO Tikue Anazodo said in a statement, “Our goal at Kudos is to simplify online checkout and maximize rewards and benefits to the consumer. The support of our investors allows us to further realize this goal and continually improve the customer experience.” Anazodo continued, “We identified an opportunity to build a new wallet product with a more consumer-focused lens and are excited to provide greater utility and benefits to our users.”

Patron co-founder and general partner Jason Yeh also said of the FinTech, “We’re thrilled to back Kudos’ expansion and its mission to maximize the online shopping experience. Kudos has the team and the experience to execute at the highest level and will undoubtedly revolutionize online shopping by creating delightful experiences for their users.”

Given the popularity of credit card rewards, it’s easy to see why Kudos would be an attractive product to consumers and investors. Of course, there’s also growing competition in this space, with the likes of MaxRewards and popular website The Points Guy also creating tools that have some overlapping features. Nevertheless, assuming the Kudos’ service works as well as its founders and investors hope it will, the platform could certainly be a hit — leading to even larger funding rounds going forward.

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