Kueski Funding, Investors & Competitors

Upgrade is a San Francisco-based fintech company and neobank that provides consumer credit and banking products to mainstream US consumers. Its offerings include personal loans, the Upgrade Card and OneCard credit cards that convert purchases into fixed-rate installment plans, home improvement and auto financing, buy-now-pay-later travel financing through Uplift, which it acquired in 2023 for US$100 million, high-yield savings and rewards checking accounts, and free credit monitoring tools. Loans and cards are issued through partner banks, and Upgrade earns revenue mainly from interest, origination fees and the sale of loans to institutional investors. It has helped customers access more than US$50 billion of consumer credit since it began lending in 2017, and its annualised revenue passed US$1 billion in May 2025. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, with an operations center in Phoenix, Arizona, a technology center in Montreal and about 1,950 employees. It was founded in 2016 by Renaud Laplanche, the co-founder and former chief executive of LendingClub. Upgrade has raised about US$750 million of equity from investors including Union Square Ventures, Ribbit Capital, Koch Disruptive Technologies, Coatue, DST Global and Neuberger Berman, most recently at a US$7.3 billion valuation in October 2025.

Klarna is the largest pure-play in the buy now, pay later space. The company operates a two-sided network with a payment method at its core, but it is ultimately a lender. Merchants sign up with Klarna to increase turnover in their stores. Primarily, Klarna can provide merchants with higher conversion rates and average order values relative to other payment methods. Some merchants enter a symbiotic relationship with Klarna, advertising its brand on the product page to drive conversion and to benefit from Klarna’s brand value in the merchant’s sales funnel. Customers use Klarna for its ease of use, quick access to credit, zero-interest financing, and lower reminder fees.

Sezzle Inc is a financing institution that offers technology-driven payment platform. The Sezzle Platform offers a payments solution for consumers in the United States and Canada that has the ability to instantly extend credit at the point-of-sale, allowing consumers to purchase and receive merchandise while paying in installments over time. Consumers pay a portion of the purchase price at the point-of-sale as a down payment, and then pay off the remaining amount over time through scheduled payments. It also offer the ability to pay-in-full using the Sezzle Platform. Its operations comprise one reportable segment, the majority of which derives revenue from payment processing platform in North America.

Zip is a credit provider operating two segments: Australia and New Zealand, and the US. Founded in Australia in 2013, it has over 6 million active customers and partners with over 85,000 merchants. In Australia, Zip positions itself as a credit card alternative, with several revolving credit products. Customers can carry the balance over time with a monthly fee and set their own repayment schedule. The US and New Zealand offering is a far more vanilla BNPL offering: Pay-in-4 in New Zealand and Pay-in-Z in the US, where customers pay back in fixed instalments. The US segment is built on the 2020 acquisition of QuadPay and has recently become Zip’s largest and fastest-growing segment.

Kredivo Group is a Jakarta-based fintech conglomerate formerly FinAccel, providing digital credit services across Southeast Asia through Kredivo, KrediFazz, and Krom brands. Its flagship Kredivo app delivers buy-now-pay-later options for e-commerce platforms like Tokopedia and Shopee in Indonesia and Vietnam, with limits up to IDR 30 million based on real-time AI underwriting. The group processed over USD 2 billion in transactions in 2022.

Jio Financial Services Ltd is a core investment company, non-deposit taking, systemically important (CIC-ND-SI). Along with its subsidiaries, joint ventures, and associates, it is engaged in the business of Investing and Financing, mainly Leasing, Insurance broking, Payment Bank, Payment Aggregator, and Payment Gateway services.

Jiedaibao is a Beijing-based Chinese internet lending platform whose mobile app lets people borrow from and lend to friends and acquaintances. A borrower publishes a request with an amount, annualised rate and repayment date of their own choosing while the lender can remain anonymous, and the platform later built electronic IOU services, employee-benefit products and a loan-referral business on top of the app. It was launched on 22 June 2015 by Renrenxing Technology, a company in the JD Capital (Jiuding) group, and the app is now operated by Chengdu Jiebao. Its early growth was driven by a RMB 2 billion cash-for-referrals campaign, and by 2024 it reported more than 140 million users. Jiedaibao raised RMB 2 billion in a first round in August 2015 and RMB 2.5 billion in a Series B at a RMB 50 billion valuation in January 2016. In March 2025 China's CCTV 3·15 consumer-rights broadcast accused the platform of facilitating predatory lending through electronic IOUs, after which it set up a rectification team and restricted the IOU function.

Mynt is a Philippines-based digital finance super app from Globe Telecom, Ayala Corporation, and Ant Financial. Launched in 2017 as GCash operator via Mynt, it provides payments, remittances, microloans, business tools, and open platforms. Manila-headquartered, Mynt serves 80 million users with GSave deposits, GInsure policies, and GCredit lending. It leads Southeast Asia's mobile wallet market through QR payments and biller networks.

Plata is a Mexico City-based fintech providing a no-annual-fee Mastercard credit card and buy-now-pay-later service. The platform offers up to 15% customizable cashback in partner categories, interest-free installments, Apple Pay support, and 24/7 fraud monitoring. Plata Difiere extends installment credit up to MXN 200,000 over 3-24 months without cards. Users manage digital cards and top-ups via app or cash at OXXO stores, targeting underserved consumers in Mexico's digital payments market.

Lendable is a London-based peer-to-peer lending marketplace matching individual investors with personal loan borrowers in the United Kingdom. The platform processes applications in minutes without paperwork, funding loans from investor deposits.

CRED is a Bengaluru fintech company founded in 2018 by Kunal Shah and operated through Dreamplug Technologies. Its app rewards creditworthy Indian consumers for paying credit card bills on time and has since added rent and utility payments, CRED Cash short-term credit, CRED Mint peer-to-peer lending and wealth products. It processes more than 40 percent of credit card bill payments in India according to the company. CRED reported consolidated operating revenue of Rs 2,735 crore in the year to March 2025. In June 2026 Meta Platforms agreed to invest $900 million in a round valuing it at $4.5 billion for about a 20 percent stake, and Kunal Shah moved to lead WhatsApp. CRED has bought HipBar, Happay, CreditVidya, Spenny and Kuvera, and has invested in LiquiLoans and M.

Enova International Inc provides online financial services, including short-term consumer loans, line of credit accounts, and installment loans to customers mainly in the United States and Brazil. Consumers apply for credit online, the company's technology platforms process the applications, and transactions are completed quickly and efficiently. Its customers are predominantly retail consumers and small businesses. Enova markets its financing products under the names CashNetUSA, NetCredit, OnDeck, Headway Capital, and Simplic. The company also operates a money transfer platform under the name Pangea. Geographically, the company generates a majority of its revenue from its business in the United States and the rest from other international countries.

Du Xiaoman Financial is Beijing-based Baidu Financial Services Group offering short-term consumer loans, wealth management products, and payment services. Holding licenses for third-party payments and fund distribution, it operates Chaituo installment loans and Qianfubao wallet, serving millions of users through Baidu app integrations.

Formed by a combination of JCPenney’s credit card processing unit and The Limited’s credit card bank business, Bread Financial is a provider of private-label and co-branded credit cards, loyalty programs, and marketing services. The company’s most financially significant unit is its credit card business that partners with retailers to jointly market Bread’s credit cards to their customers. The company also retains a minority interest in spun-off LoyaltyOne, which operates the largest airline miles loyalty program in Canada and offers marketing services to grocery chains in Europe and Asia.

Creditas is a Brazilian financial technology company that offers loans secured by homes, cars and payroll, together with insurance and a used-car marketplace. It was founded in 2012 by Sergio Furio as BankFacil and renamed Creditas in 2017. The company funds its loans largely through securitisation vehicles and, since the closing of its purchase of Bank Andbank Brasil in late 2025, holds a banking licence. Its Series G round of USD 108 million in December 2025 was led by Andbank at a post-money valuation of USD 3.3 billion, down from USD 4.8 billion in 2022. Earlier backers include SoftBank, Fidelity, Kaszek, QED Investors, VEF, Lightrock and Amadeus Capital. Acquisitions include Creditoo, Bcredi, Minuto Seguros, Volanty and Kzas, and it holds an investment in the electric motorcycle maker Voltz.

Ualá is an Argentine financial technology company that runs a digital banking platform for consumers and merchants across Argentina, Mexico and Colombia. It was founded in 2017 by Pierpaolo Barbieri and started with a mobile app linked to a prepaid Mastercard card. The app now offers debit and credit cards, transfers, bill payments, loans, investment funds, insurance and a remunerated account, while its merchant arm Ualá Bis provides card acceptance. Ualá bought the digital bank Wilobank in Argentina, the Mexican bank ABC Capital, the buy-now-pay-later lender Ceibo Creditos and the e-commerce platform Empretienda. It became a unicorn in August 2021 with a USD 350 million Series D and was valued at USD 3.2 billion after a USD 195 million round in March 2026. The company serves more than 11 million customers.

Capri Global Capital Ltd provides financial services. The company is engaged in providing loans to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), providing long term finance for the construction of residential houses, retail lending, gold loan, and ancillary services. It generates maximum revenue from the interest income. Geographically, it operates only in India.

Upstart Holdings Inc provides credit services. The company provides a proprietary, cloud-based, artificial intelligence lending platform. The platform aggregates consumer demand for loans and connects it to the network of Upstart AI-enabled bank partners. The company support development of different lending product offerings, which are grouped into three operating segments - Personal Lending (unsecured personal loans and small dollar loans), Auto Lending (auto refinance, auto retail loans, and auto secured personal loans), and Other (HELOCs and other).