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Credit Karma Adding 100,000 Users per Month

By Jessica Ward on June 15, 2010 2:06 PM

Since Credit Karma first demonstrated its unique credit monitoring service at Finovate Fall 2008 (video) and Finovate Spring 2009 (video), many changes have taken hold at the company.

New Features:

June, 2009: Financial advice center, which allows members to share experiences and questions with one another (see image 1).

September, 2009: a white-label platform currently in use by Sears/KMart among others (see Netbanker article). This provides even more consumers with their credit score information for free.

February 2010: launches a free service that allows members to view how much they could save by refinancing their existing loan products (see our earlier post). The service works by evaluating the information on the user's credit report and credit score. It runs in real-time, encouraging users to re-visit the site frequently to not only check their score, but their financial options (see image 2).

Future Plans

According to Credit Karma, members continue to be frustrated by misleading credit monitoring services and hard-to-understand financial products. "Our goal is to address each of these needs as we continue to build out the product," said Nichole Mustard, Credit Karma's VP of Strategy. "In the near term, we'll be launching more user-submitted areas that allow members to critique and review financial products. In the mid-term, we'll expand our educational features to help more people understand credit scores and the financial services sector."

What they are doing must be working. The company has doubled in size since spring 2009 and anticipates doubling again by year end. Credit Karma has 1.5 million members and is adding more than 100,000 each month. According to Compete, Credit Karma has more than 380,000 unique visitors per month (see chart below).

The company has received $3 million in funding since founding in May, 2007, including $2.5 million in series B funding in fall 2009 (source).

Mint Takes Top Spot on Finovate Alum Traffic Chart for March 2010

By Andrew Dolbeck on April 19, 2010 2:55 PM

Each month we survey the Web-traffic performance of our alums, using data from Web-analytics company Compete to review the 132 sites they operate. (Our review for the previous month is available here.)

Out of 105 sites with data available (see note 1), 44 (42%) had more than 10,000 unique U.S. visitors in March 2010 (see table #1, below), up from 42 last month. Of the 105, only seven (7%) had fewer visitors than in the previous month and 25 (24%) saw a decline year-over-year.

Notable successes:

Mint saw the most unique U.S. visitors in March, with more than 1.6 million hits.
Expensify saw impressive month-over-month growth, with more than three times as many visitors.
BillShrink and Credit Karma (including its Sears site) both saw traffic double year over year.

While the top six positions remained unchanged between January and February, March brought several changes. Previous monthly leader FiLife has dropped to number five, being replaced at the top by Mint. BillShrink joined the top five for the first time this year, rising from seventh to fourth. Motley Fool CAPS and Digital Insight both rose on the list, while Credit.com and Credit Karma fell one place.

#1. Finovate alumni with more than 10,000 unique U.S. visitors in March 2010

Rank	Previous rank	Company	Unique visitors: March 2010	Unique visitors: March 2009	Change over previous year	Unique visitors: Feb. 2010	Change over previous month
1	2	Mint	1,610,000	1,040,000	55%	1,110,000	45%
2	3	Motley Fool CAPS	837,000	1,290,000	(35%)	769,000	9%
3	4	Digital Insight (Intuit)	580,000	801,000	(28%)	576,000	1%
4	7	BillShrink	479,000	204,000	2.4x	239,000	2.0x
5	1	FiLife (DowJones/IAC)	463,000	336,000	38%	1,530,000	(70%)
6	5	Credit.com	353,000	428,000	(18%)	344,000	3%
7	6	Credit Karma	346,000	207,000	67%	335,000	3%
8	12	Billeo	175,000	202,000	(13%)	101,000	73%
9	8	CashEdge	170,000	345,000	(51%)	162,000	5%
10	11	SimpleTuition	169,000	153,000	10%	133,000	27%
11	9	Prosper	149,000	793,000	(81%)	145,000	3%
12	13	Strands	112,000	34,500	3.3x	97,400	15%
13	19	TradeKing	107,000	115,000	(7%)	78,800	36%
14	14	Outright.com	107,000	49,300	2.2x	96,600	11%
15	15	Andera	104,000	140,000	(26%)	92,800	12%
16	16	Zecco	102,000	123,000	(17%)	89,500	14%
17	18	Quicken Online (Intuit)	101,000	433,000	(77%)	82,800	22%
18	10	Sears Credit Score (Credit Karma)	92,300	N/A	N/A	139,000	(34%)
19	17	Lending Club	89,900	109,000	(18%)	85,700	5%
20	21	Yodlee	81,300	121,000	(33%)	51,100	59%
21	20	Fiserv	66,600	60,100	11%	66,000	1%
22	35	Expensify	63,300	11,200	5.7x	17,800	3.6x
23	25	Sybase 365	54,100	40,700	33%	37,000	46%
24	22	CheckingFinder	50,000	65,600	(24%)	45,800	9%
25	27	SmartyPig	44,400	86,400	(49%)	25,200	76%
26	30	MoneyAisle (NeoSaej)	37,400	66,900	(44%)	22,000	70%
27	23	TrustedID	34,800	55,200	(37%)	45,200	(23%)
28	33	Check Point	32,800	31,300	5%	19,300	70%
29	27	Wesabe	32,500	124,000	(74%)	25,400	28%
30	41	SecondMarket	31,700	4,300	7.4x	11,300	2.8x
31	24	CheckFree	31,500	N/A	N/A	39,600	(20%)
32	34	BrightScope	30,900	14,000	2.2x	19,200	61%
33	36	SocialPicks	27,200	20,100	35%	17,200	58%
34	37	Infosys	24,600	25,400	(3%)	16,500	49%
35	38	CircleUp	21,200	29,400	(28%)	15,000	41%
36	29	Centrro	19,100	51,500	(63%)	22,900	(17%)
37	39	Online Resources	19,100	61,900	(69%)	14,600	31%
38	32	Fidelity National Information Services	17,700	N/A	N/A	20,400	(13%)
39	40	Expensr (Money Strands)	17,500	9,960	76%	13,600	29%
40	43	S1 Enterprise	16,500	6,500	2.5x	7,620	2.2x
41	31	kaChing	15,500	15,800	(2%)	21,100	(27%)
42	45	WeSeed	12,800	56,900	(78%)	7,470	71%
43	59	Rudder	10,500	17,400	(40%)	4,230	2.5x
44	44	Thrive (Lending Tree)	10,100	20,300	(50%)	7,500	35%
	Totals:	44 Companies	6,950,000	7,780,000	(11%)	6,800,000	2%

Source: Compete.com, April 15, 2010

#2. Finovate alumni with year-over-year growth of at least 5,000 U.S. visitors

Rank	Company	Unique visitors: March 2010	Unique visitors: March 2009	Increase in number of visitors	Change
1	Mint	1,610,000	1,040,000	570,000	55%
2	BillShrink	479,000	204,000	275,000	2.4x
3	Credit Karma	346,000	207,000	139,000	67%
4	FiLife (DowJones/IAC)	463,000	336,000	127,000	38%
5	Sears Credit Score	92,300	N/A	92,300	N/A
6	Strands	112,000	34,500	77,500	3.3x
7	Outright.com	107,000	49,300	57,700	2.2x
8	Expensify	63,300	11,200	52,100	5.7x
9	SecondMarket	31,700	4,300	27,400	7.4x
10	BrightScope	30,900	14,000	16,900	2.2x
11	SimpleTuition	169,000	153,000	16,000	10%
12	Sybase 365	54,100	40,700	13,400	33%
13	S1 Enterprise	16,500	6,500	10,000	2.5x
14	BancVue (Kasasa)	8,780	N/A	8,780	N/A
15	Expensr (Money Strands)	17,500	9,960	7,540	76%
16	SocialPicks	27,200	20,100	7,100	35%
17	Refinance.com (Home-Account)	7,500	820	6,680	9.2x
18	Portfolio Monkey	7,930	1,380	6,550	5.8x
19	Fiserv	66,600	60,100	6,500	11%
20	The Receivables Exchange	9,150	3,000	6,150	3.0x

Source: Compete.com, April 15, 2010

Notes:

1. We reviewed 132 unique sites. Data was unavailable for 27 sites because they had been acquired, were no longer available online, or had active sites that were not covered by Compete for various reasons, including some that were not U.S. domestic companies.

2. At larger companies we tried to measure traffic to the sub-domain most closely aligned with the Finovate demo, e.g., www.checkfree.fiserv.com. Also, searscreditscore.com, a private-label site supported by Credit Karma, and Money Island, a new BancVue site, have been added to the list.

3. Numbers have been rounded to three significant digits.

4. The charts include companies that did not have measurable traffic in February 2009, indicated by a N/A.

5. Compete draws its information from the online activity of a panel of more than 2 million U.S. Internet users. It is only an estimate of traffic, and may undercount at-work usage.

Alumni News – Week of March 8

By Andrew Dolbeck on March 12, 2010 12:12 AM

Here are the news headlines we posted this week on Twitter (follow it here).

AlphaClone to Launch Investment Accounts -- Investment research firm AlphaClone announced that it plans to offer managed account services later this year. http://bit.ly/ayOI5t

BrightScope Partners with Acceleration Retirement -- BrightScope announced a partnership with Acceleration Retirement, a provider of marketing and lead-generation services to retirement plan advisors. The deal combines BrightScope's data and analytical tools with Acceleration's marketing and practice-management experience. http://bit.ly/c780Zs

CashEdge to Support HelloWallet -- CashEdge will provide financial data aggregation for new PFM website HelloWallet. CashEdge draws data from bank accounts, investments, retirement accounts, insurance plans, credit cards, mortgages and annuities. http://bit.ly/9xjRqD (Netbanker coverage of HelloWallet here.)

Check Point Wins Award from SC Magazine -- Security software firm Check Point was recognized with a Reader Trust Award from SC Magazine for its Security Gateway R7, which took the award for Best Enterprise Firewall. This is the sixth time SC Magazine has given Check Point an award for achievement in information technology and security. http://bit.ly/doRu4B

Expensify Offers App on Google Apps Marketplace -- Expensify announced that its small-business expense management app is now available on Google Apps Marketplace, Google's recently launched storefront for online products and services. The Expensify app enables users to import expense data from their credit cards, manage receipts online, and create expense reports. http://bit.ly/cYjDLq

Four Finovate Alumni in Panel Discussion at SXSW - Credit Karma, Lending Club, Mint, and SmartyPig will discuss banking industry innovation at the SXSW conference on March 13 in Austin, Texas. The panel discussion will include Rob Garcia, Senior Director of Product Strategy for LendingClub.com; Aaron Forth, VP of Product at Mint.com; Kenneth Lin, CEO of CreditKarma.com; and Bob Weinschenk CEO of SmartyPig.com. http://bit.ly/dbuYuR

GreenSherpa Upgrades -- GreenSherpa announced several upgrades to its web-based application, including changes to user collaboration and integration features, cash flow projection capabilities, and the graphical user interface. http://bit.ly/alnZeW

New Funding and Board Member for Home-Account -- Bills.com has doubled its financial investment in Home-Account. In addition, Mark Goines, a former director of Mint and a former Intuit executive, has joined Home-Accounts Board of Directors. Goines also made an unspecified angel investment in Home-Account. http://bit.ly/aJGuzs

Intuit Offers Payroll Suite on Google Marketplace -- Intuit is offering its Online Payroll suite of web applications on Google's new Apps Marketplace. Intuit also intends to make the payroll solution available through its own Intuit App Center. http://bit.ly/9dsR19

iPay Technologies Partners with Q2ebanking -- iPay Technologies and Q2ebanking announced a new alliance that will allow iPay to offer its bill payment solutions to Q2's customers. Q2 provides financial services technologies to community financial institutions. http://bit.ly/9T6CQ9

Tom Burgess Joins Micronotes' Advisory Board -- Tom Burgess, the founder and CEO of Third Screen Media, has joined the advisory board of online marketing company Micronotes. Burgess will serve as a marketing practices advisor. Third Screen Media was a wireless advertising company that was acquired by AOL in 2007. http://bit.ly/bUEd7Q

mFoundry Receives Paybefore Award -- mFoundry won the Best Virtual Prepaid Card category in Prepaid Media's fourth annual Paybefore Awards. mFoundry was recognized for its work on Starbucks Mobile, which allows consumers to use mobile devices to track activity on Starbucks cards. http://bit.ly/doCsP4 (Netbanker blog on Starbucks Mobile here.)

Mozo Launches Program for Students - Australian financial comparison company Mozo has launched a new service called the Student Room. The program helps university students find deals on banking services, including special offers designed for students. http://bit.ly/dBsgMu

S1 acquires PM Systems -- On March 4, S1 completed acquisition of PM Systems for $29 million. PM Systems provides internet banking, bill payment, and security solutions for credit unions. S1 announced the acquisition in its statement of its fourth quarter results. http://bit.ly/aF2Jvz

The Receivables Exchange Reports Sales Growth -- The Receivables Exchange, an online marketplace for receivables trading, reported 100% quarter-over-quarter growth in receivables sold in Q4 2009. http://bit.ly/asQqNm

Credit Karma Launches Savings Dashboard with Targeted Financial Offers

By Andrew Dolbeck on February 17, 2010 3:06 PM

Consumer credit information provider Credit Karma has launched a new feature, the Ways to Save Dashboard. The free tool helps consumers find cost savings based on their credit scores.

Credit Karma allows users to track their credit scores free of charge. Since interest rates and credit ratings fluctuate, most consumers can save money if they know where to look and are willing to spend time switching accounts.

The new Dashboard tool automates the discovery process, finding offers for consumers and presenting them with a personalized page of deals. (FinovateStartup 2009 video here.)

How it works

1. The user registers at Credit Karma. The site uses the consumer's social security number to pull their credit score with a soft inquiry that does not impact the user's credit rating.

2. Consumers can come back at any time to view their current credit score.

3. When the user logs in, the system automatically shops for competitive deals. This shopping process is performed anonymously, with no personal details disclosed to advertisers.

4. Tabs across the top of the webpage lead to custom offers based on the user's credit report and optional financial information provided to Credit Karma, such as the make and model of a vehicle. For example, savings account holders will be presented with alternative accounts with higher interest rates (see screenshot #1, below) or credit card offers for card holders (screenshot #2).

5. The Dashboard provides direct links to the advertisers to take advantage of the offers.

Web traffic at Credit Karma has been growing steadily. The site currently boasts more than 400,000 unique visitors per month, more than double the volume a year ago.

Compete.com Feb. 2010, traffic data here

Credit Karma also announced that it quadrupled its users in 2009 and now has more than one million subscribers.

#1. The Dashboard Presents Savings Accounts ...

Note: In my case there were no savings found, but there is usually a positive number displayed. One of my colleagues had more than $1,000 in savings offered.

#2. ... and Credit Card Plans

Alumni News - Week of Feb. 1, 2010

By Andrew Dolbeck on February 5, 2010 3:16 PM

Here are the news headlines posted recently on our Twitter feed (follow it here).

Billeo's iPad Sweepstakes -- From Feb. 4 to April 5, Billeo is offering an incentive for new users. Sign up to Billeo and be entered into a sweepstakes to win a new iPad. No purchase is required, but you must download the Billeo app and register. http://bit.ly/7JU7q3

Credit Karma Adds Users and New Tool -- Credit Karma doubled its users in 2009 and now serves more than 1 million users. On Feb. 3, the company announced its new Savings Dashboard tool, which helps consumers capitalize on improvements in their credit scores. www.creditkarma.com

Expensify Launches Palm Pre App -- Expensify has released a new app for the Palm Pre that scans receipts and tracks expenses. The company already has apps for iPhone, Blackberry, and Android. http://is.gd/7B22C

GreenSherpa Wins Catalyst Competition Award -- Social networking company Girls in Tech and broadcast platform Vator.TV have announced the winners of their joint Catalyst Competition honoring women-led startup companies. GreenSherpa was among the five winners selected. Other winners were AccessDNA, BakeSpace, MyLawsuit, and Marriage.com, with Graspr winning the popular vote. http://bit.ly/dw7HU1

Intuit Launches PFM product in India -- Intuit has launched a new financial software product in India. The new Intuit Money Manager application aggregates account data and allows users to view real-time information about their expenses. The tool can also track investments, insurance, and other financial instruments through Intuit's collaboration with Moneycontrol.com. http://bit.ly/9N1xMs

Mortgagebot Reports Growth in Users and Revenue -- Mortgage technology provider Mortgagebot reported a 25% growth in revenue for fiscal 2009. The company also gained about 200 new clients in 2009 and now serves nearly 950 clients. http://bit.ly/c9ugjC

Silver Tail to Present Webinar -- On Feb. 23, Silver Tail Systems will present a free webinar on screen injection, a new hacking technique threatening the security of online banking sites. Silver Tail's founder, Laura Mather, Ph.D., will provide detailed information on the hacking technology. http://bit.ly/caqtH8

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