A startup called Flurish Inc., better known as LendUp, has raised $14 million in Series A financing to offer an online alternative to traditional payday loans, according to co-founders Sasha Orloff and Jacob Rosenberg.
Google Ventures led the investment in LendUp, joined by Data Collective and QED Investors. The deal marks one of several in the lending segment of financial services for Google Ventures and Google Inc., which backed OnDeck Capital Inc. and Lending Club Inc., respectively.
LendUp, based in San Francisco with 14 employees, gives short-term, small dollar loans to borrowers online–usually the kinds of borrowers banks won’t help. Instead of relying on FICO scores, LendUp uses publicly available data online–from social networks, for example–to assess which applicants may be a good risk, even if they don’t have any credit history in the U.S. Loan decisions are usually made within minutes, the company says.
