Want to apply for a loan, but you’re unsure about your credit score? The Berlin-based startup Bonify provides free, easy-to-read credit reports. Users can use the startup’s platform or app to check and correct their scores, monitor changes, and receive tips on personal finance and how to optimise their scores.
Bonify evaluates consumers real-time creditworthiness, enabling them to improve their financial wellbeing through tailored financial and non-financial recommendations. The app delivers recommendations for how consumers can save money, for instance by switching to a different loan or energy provider. Bonify is also able to predict six to eight weeks in advance when its users might go into their overdraft, and provide personalised suggestions for how to avoid this.
Founded in 2015, Bonify just raised a new funding round led by Santander InnoVentures, with participation from existing investors Mosaic Ventures, Ribbit Capital, and DN Capital.
Bonify’s user base has increased threefold since its €5.5 million Series A investment round at the start of last year, and it has provided over 600,000 credit reports. The startup will use the new funding to enhance its technology, with plans to upgrade the analytics engine that powers its service, enabling it firm to further optimise its personalised recommendations, and to expand across Europe.
Manuel Silva Martínez, partner at Santander InnoVentures, said: “Bonify’s mission to educate consumers about the importance of their credit score and help them take control of their personal finances aligns perfectly with our values of improving consumers’ lives through a smarter usage of data. Bonify follows the trail of similarly successful models across the world. We are excited to partner with Gamal, Andreas, world-class VC investors and influential German angel VCs to turn our first German investment into an international success.”
Gamal Moukabary, CEO and Co-founder at Bonify, said: “We are really excited to welcome on board Santander InnoVentures as a strategic partner for our next stage of growth. In 2019 we plan to expand the business further into Europe and we will continue to use data to serve our customers’ individual needs and improve their financial wellbeing.”
