Credit Karma In The Market For At Least $60 Million

Riding a wave of investor interest in new consumer-facing banking, trading, credit, and lending services, the online credit marketplace Credit Karma is looking to raise at least $60 million in its latest round of funding, according to several people familiar with the company’s plans.

The company is one of a new breed of consumer facing financial applications and services that have launched in the wake of the financial crisis to tackle what they see as a generational shift in financial management.

Credit Karma’s ads are ubiquitous online these days (at least I can’t escape them), which speaks to a major marketing push that seems to already be underway.

“If you think about financial services products over the last twenty years, not much has changed,” said Ken Lin, the chief executive and founder of Credit Karma. “[Credit] applications have come online and things have gotten faster, but we think there’s more transparency we can create and a lot more efficiency.”

Lin declined to comment on the company’s fundraising plans.

So far, the company has managed to roll up a user base which accounts for $1.2 trillion of U.S. consumer debt. That’s roughly 10% of the nearly $13 trillion of consumer debt outstanding in the U.S.

Now, the company is building out services to monetize those users. Lin said that the company is looking to be a sort of Kayak for the financial services industry.

On top of letting customers access their credit score for free, the company is looking at partnering with banks to create a recommendation and origination engine for consumers to better manage their debt loads.

It was only last year that Credit Karma raised $30 million in Series B financing, in a round led by new investors Ribbit Capital and Susquehanna Growth Equity, with participation from existing investor Felicis Ventures. The investment remains the largest commitment Ribbit Capital has ever made.

Credit Karma isn’t alone in pursuing new financial services offerings. Kapitall raised $13 million earlier this month to sell users on new investment trading tools for retail stock market investors that gamify the trading experience.

Photo via Flickr user Bart Claeys