Petal

Petal is an online lender that offers credit cards (issued by Webank) and a mobile cash management app to help consumers build a credit history. It uses its proprietary technology to calculate a “CashScore” based on the customer’s cash flow history, enabling it to provide credit to consumers who have little or no credit history. Its mobile app offers personal financial management features including budgeting tools, an interest calculator, and credit score tracking.

The company also established a B2B platform called Prism Data in 2021, to offer its CashScore technology to other banks and financial institutions to allow them develop new credit products and improve their underwriting capabilities. Prism Data had more than a dozen clients including some of the country’s largest banks, and had been used to originate more than USD 2 billion in credit. However, Petal divested this unit in May 2023.

In April 2024, Petal was acquired by Empower Finance, a US-based FinTech company, for an undisclosed sum.

Key customers and partnerships

As of August 2023, Petal had issued credit cards to nearly 400,000 customers, with over 100,000 new card approvals in 2022.

Funding and financials

In August 2023, Petal secured USD 200 million debt facility from Victory Park Capital, while it also extended the tenure of its existing term loan facilities and obtained a new USD 20 million facility from Trinity Capital. In addition, it also raised USD 20 million in equity as an extension to its strategic funding round announced in May 2023. The company aimed to use the fresh funds to expand its credit program.

Petal reported to have achieved an annualized revenue of over USD 80 million in 2022, keeping it on track to achieve profitability in 2024.