Platform Helping Renters Build Credit Now Valued At $1.2 Billion
Rent is often the largest monthly expense for American households, yet for decades it counted for little when it came to building credit. Esusu, a Black-owned fintech company, is working to change that.
Founded in 2018, Esusu partners with large property owners to report renters’ on-time payments to credit bureaus. The approach allows millions of renters to build credit without taking on new debt, creating clearer pathways to homeownership and long-term financial stability.
The company has now raised $50 million in a Series C funding round, bringing its total funding to more than $200 million and its valuation to $1.2 billion. Esusu first became a unicorn in 2022 following a $130 million Series B raise.
Helping Renters Turn Rent Into Credit
Esusu was founded by co-CEOs Wemimo Abbey and Samir Goel, who grew up in immigrant households in Lagos, Nigeria, and New Delhi, India, respectively, and witnessed the impacts of financial exclusion firsthand.
“We founded Esusu in 2018 with a simple but powerful belief: where you come from, what you look like, and your financial identity should never determine where you end up in life,” the co-founders said in a statement. “Yet for too long, millions of Americans have been excluded from building credit, accessing quality housing, and unlocking long-term financial mobility.”
Today, Esusu is available in more than 5 million rental units nationwide, reaching around 12 million renters and tracking over $100 billion in annual rent payments. According to Esusu, renters using its platform who would otherwise be excluded due to thin or poor credit files have unlocked more than $30 billion in mortgages.
A Major Policy Shift Boosts Esusu’s Impact
The timing of Esusu’s Series C raise is significant. The Federal Housing Finance Agency recently approved the use of rental data in mortgage underwriting, one of the most meaningful changes to the US credit system in decades.
Mortgage lenders now rely on verified rental and identity data, positioning Esusu as one of the largest and most trusted rental data providers in the country. The company partners with nearly two-thirds of the nation’s largest real estate owners and operators, including Blackstone, Related Companies, and Invitation Homes. Esusu also acquired Celeri, an AI-powered fraud prevention software provider for the residential real estate industry, in January.
Investors Back Esusu’s Vision For Fairer Credit
The Series C round was led by Westbound Equity Partners, with participation from Blue Meridian Partners, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, and strategic family offices.
Esusu plans to use the new funding to scale three core products. Rent Reporting as a Service allows banks and fintechs to embed rent reporting directly into their platforms. Esusu Pay enables renters to split rent into two payments aligned with income cycles. Esusu Identity Services combines rental and identity data to support fairer lending, housing, and financial decision-making.
“These investments accelerate our vision of a world where every renter can build credit, achieve stability, and ultimately build wealth,” Abbey and Goel said in a statement. “This milestone is a testament to what we can accomplish together.”
Image credit: Mike Coppola—Getty Images for TIME
