Fintech company Lendbuzz has raised $150 million in debt and equity financing. The debt funding was led by BHI (Bank Hapoalim USA), ConnectOne Bank, IDB Bank, Viola Credit and a large insurance company. The funding includes $20 million in equity financing led by 83North. In total the company has raised $165 million in debt funding and $30 million in equity financing.
The Boston-based company, founded in 2015 by Israelis CEO Amitay Kalmar and CTO Dan Raviv aims to disrupt the existing car financing market using machine learning algorithms.
Kalmar said, "This is a significant step forward for Lendbuzz. The capital will allow us to further accelerate our fast-growing car financing platform and enhance our ability to provide the best terms to borrowers that do not have an established U.S. credit history."
Raviv added: "We developed a unique underwriting platform based on alternative data points to evaluate credit risk. Our AutoML Deep Neural Network (DNN) system is continuously improving and allows us to evaluate the true credit risk for people with a limited credit file or missing FICO score."
The company has no operations in Israel but is considering setting up a development center because of its need for machine learning development professionals.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on July 15, 2019
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