Deserve, a US-based developer of digital credit card technology, has secured $50m in a series D round co-led by payment services firm Mastercard and Ally Ventures, part of financial services holding company Ally Financial.
The round was co-led with investment firm Mission Holdings and also featured financial services firm Sallie Mae and investment bank Goldman Sachs’ Asset Management division. It valued the company at more than $500m, according to Bloomberg.
Founded in 2013 as SelfScore, Deserve uses machine learning and alternative data sets to determine creditworthiness and offer credit cards to users without a credit history.
The company also partners financial institutions, financial technology developers, consumer brands, universities and associations to provide credit card programmes. The funding will accelerate its expansion and the launch of new credit card programmes.
Deserve had raised $50m in a late 2019 series C round led by Goldman Sachs that included Sallie Mae, Accel, Aspect Ventures, Pelion Venture Partners and Mission Holdings, taking its total funding to over $93m.
Sallie Mae led a $17m round for the company the previous year that was also backed by Alumni Venture Group, GDP Venture and existing investors Accel, Aspect Ventures, Pelion Ventures and Mission Holdings.