Tomocredit is founded by CEO Kristy Kim, a female immigrant.

Tomocredit, a credit card provider that does not insist on a FICO score from borrowers such as credit-invisible immigrants and international students with no credit history in the U.S, announced its raise of $122 million in equity and debt. The oversubscribed round met with participation by Morgan Stanley’s Next Level Fund, MasterCard, and debt from Silicon Valley Bank. Major fintech investors and culture funds including GoldHouse, Asian Hustle network, and Hyphen Capital, also participated. (CISION PRNewswire)

How it works

Tomocredit has dumped the industry-standard credit score that determines a person’s eligibility for a credit card. Instead, the firm uses Tomo Score, its proprietary underwriting algorithm, to determine suitability. This system has been a success, and identified high potential borrowers without a credit score. The resulting product, the TomoCredit card, has helped boost company revenues by 1000% last year.

The TomoCredit credit card requires no credit check, no deposit, no APR, and no feeds.

Kristy Kim said in a statement: “We decided to add more capital for two key reasons. First, we were seeing incredible organic demands in the past two years, and we wanted to hire top talent to keep up with that organic growth. Secondly, we want to take full advantage of the newest consumer trends of avoiding high APR products. TomoCredit charges 0% APR with no fees. In recent months, many people who have 15 – 25% higher APR cards are ditching those products and flocking over to TomoCredit.”

Use of funds

The company will apply the new funds to expand its credit product offerings including auto loans and mortgages with its innovative underwriting solutions.

In an interview with Tech Crunch, Kim said: “As we are getting bigger, we are realizing that the target market we can address is way bigger than what we were expecting. We now know that the credit invisible goes way beyond immigrants.”

As a result, Tomo may also soon extend its card to domestic students and small-medium-businesses (SMBs).

The latest round valued TomoCredit at $222 million post-money.

Related Story: Tennis Superstar Serena Williams Backs Fintech Esusu