FinTech News
Stilt Raises $114 Million, Launches “Credit-as-a-Service” Platform Onbo
When looking at the FinTech industry, a recurring theme is the idea of bringing financial services to those who have traditionally been without such offerings. This includes making banking, investing, and lending products more accessible overall. Now, a startup with a focus on these very goals is raising money towards its efforts, while also rolling out a new platform that will expand its reach.
This week, Stilt announced that it had raised $114 million. The total includes a $100 million debt facility as well as a $14 million Series A. The latter was led by Link Ventures, while firms Petrushka Investments and Hillsven Capital alongside individuals including Gokul Rajaram, Stripe COO Claire Hughes Johnson, Checkout.com CTO Ott Kaukver, Superhuman CEO Rahul Vohra, Josh Buckely, and others also participated. To date, Stilt has now raised a total of $375 million in equity and debt financing.
Stilt is a FinTech that specializes in loans for immigrants and other underserved communities. This includes international students, DACA recipients, and visa holders. Currently, the company is taking its efforts one step further with the introduction of Onbo. With this new platform, other businesses will be able to offer credit-building products, lines of credit, and personal loans to customers without needing to find a partner bank. Instead, Stilt will manage compliance and licensing. Additionally, the company will offer debt capital of up to $1 million to businesses.
Sharing more on the impact Stilit expects Obno to have, the company’s co-founder and CEO Rohit Mittal said in a statement, “Onbo represents a new path forward for neobanks looking to launch a credit product. We’ve spent 5 years at Stilt getting state lending licenses, building our credit stack, and refining our risk models. Now we’re opening this entire stack for others to build innovative credit products in just a few short weeks.” Mittal added, “This is the quickest way we can think of to democratize loans and credit building across the board.”
Additionally, Link Ventures Board Member Lisa Dolan said of Stilt and their new offering, “Stilt is now taking their next step in changing the game of access to credit in the U.S. Onbo will enable neobanks and fintech projects to offer optimized lending products for their communities out of the gate.”
While Stilt’s $14 million Series A is noteworthy in its own right, the launch of Onbo presents great promise for the startup. Furthermore, the feature could go a long way in helping the company accomplish its mission of helping the underserved. To that point, Stilt is continuing a core tradition of FinTech as it brings greater financial services to a greater number of people.
