Learn how this New York Fintech is Unlocking Access to Credit

India, US, UK and Germany have been home to the both of us. One thing that was common in all these countries was the importance of credit. Credit for growth, credit for investments or credit for purchases. When we moved to the UK to pursue our MBA at LBS, we were denied a basic phone plan for not having sufficient credit history. Similarly, when Varun lived in the US, it took him years to get a decent credit score. Did you know that even though the concept of credit dates back 5,000 years ago, 45 million individuals in the US still lack access to credit?

Source For Wemimo Abbey and Samir Goel, this was a cause of concern. “We’re trying to address the fact that millions of people have a thin credit score or no credit score at all, while the average debt is around $135,000,” says Abbey, who co-founded Esusu along with Samir Goel. What is Esusu? Before we dive into the brainy stuff, a brief history about the word. Esusu is the name of an ancient form of cooperation among farmers, originating from the Yoruba people in Nigeria. A group of people would pool funds and loans were given out to finance projects. To this day it serves as a substitute for financial institutions. With that in mind, Abbey and Samir decided to create Esusu - a rent-reporting platform that is increasing access to credit by going down to the most basic expense, rent. Traditionally, rental expenses have never counted towards your credit score in the United States. Abbey and Samir, the founders of Esusu, decided to disrupt that. Esusu is not just reporting rental payments to three largest credit reporting agencies (Experian, TransUnion and Equifax) in the US, but also creating a self-serving business model. The B2B and B2C channels of Esusu complement each other, effectively monetising the total addressable market referenced above.

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