Apple buys Credit Kudos

According to CNBC and other reports, Apple has acquired British fintech startup Credit Kudos.

Established in 2015, Credit Kudos is an open banking credit reference agency replacing traditional, narrow methods of credit assessment to make credit fair and accessible to all. It is a challenger to the big credit reporting agencies, which include Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.

The deal values Credit Kudos at around $150 million. The startup publicly disclosed ~$10 million in funding to date and it reported losses of £4.5 million ($5.9 million) in its 2020 financial year, double the £2.2 million it lost in 2019, according to a Companies House filing.

This month Visa completed the acquisition of open banking platform Tink in a deal valued at over $2 billion. Previously, Visa tried to acquire Plaid but the deal fell through after the Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit to block the deal.