“Snowball” isn’t just a strategy for repaying debt. It’s also the name of the first acquisition by personal finance and credit management platform, Credit Karma.
“We have tens of thousands of data points on a particular customer at any time,” Credit Karma CTO Ryan Graciano told TechCrunch last week. “But sorting through all that … is a very tricky thing to do, especially in a way where you’re not overwhelming the user with spurious notifications.”
And that’s where Snowball comes in. The app was developed in 2014 to aggregate multiple Android-based messaging apps. Credit Karma plans to use the technology to deliver actionable mobile notifications, and they like the fact that the platform is native to Android. “Android is a key platform for us,” Graciano said. “And these guys have a really amazing experience on Android.”
From left: Credit Karma CEO Ken Lin, founder, and VP Nichole Mustard, business development, demonstrated Credit Karma’s Debt Manager platform at FinovateSpring 2009.
Five members of Snowball’s six-person team will join Credit Karma, including Snowball CEO Anish Acharya who will serve as senior director for product management. Snowball had raised $2.3 million in funding from investors including Felicis Ventures, First Round Capital and Greylock Partners.
Founded in July 2007 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, Credit Karma specializes in providing credit management information, including free credit monitoring, credit scores, reports, and email alerts. The company has raised more than $368 million in financing, including its most recent $175 million Series D round in June 2015 . Credit Karma was named to Fast Company’s 2015 Silicon Valley “Nice” list, and was recognized by Glassdoor as one of the “Best Places to Work in 2016” in December, the same month the company joined 19 fellow Finovate alums on the first Forbes Fintech 50. In November 2015, Credit Karma celebrated giving away its billionth free credit score since launching in 2008.
Credit Karma demonstrated its Debt Manager platform at FinovateSpring 2009.
