Infact secures FCA authorisation and raises £4m

Challenger credit reference agency, Infact has announced a £4 million seed funding round after securing FCA authorisation to establish the first real-time credit bureau for the digital financial services market.

The funding was led by AlbionVC, with participation from 13books Capital, Outward VC, Form Ventures, and Portfolio Ventures. Infact is also backed by leading angel investors in the credit referencing, lending, and fintech space. This investment will be used to accelerate building the richer bureau database and to extend the product suite to help challenger lenders and banks reset the scales when it comes to credit.

Infact solves the well-documented problems with legacy credit reference agencies which underserve consumers and lenders. Legacy bureau’s struggle to keep pace with the rapid evolution of consumer credit preferences as individuals increasingly turn to lower value, high-velocity, transactional products. This inability to adapt to changing market dynamics hinders the sustainable growth of cutting-edge financial offerings and limits the potential benefits that these products could bring consumers. To solve this problem, Infact has built a platform that accurately represents modern credit products and consumers in a way existing bureaus cannot. The platform offers a simple and intuitive API for lenders to report and receive consumer credit risk insights in real-time. This enables lenders’ credit risk teams to improve lending performance and increase profitable lending, while also enabling consumers to build and rehabilitate their credit profiles faster and more safely.

The company is led by Will Mason and Andy Milligan, previously from Runpath which was acquired by Experian. They have built a founding team with diverse credit experience from companies such as NatWest, TSB, Castlight, Experian, Credit Kudos, Metro Bank, Ratesetter, Laybuy, and Visa.

Will Mason, CEO and co-founder of Infact said “Legacy bureaus have done a bad job innovating in their core business and have instead chosen to innovate around the edges. We are excited to build a challenger bureau that supports today’s lenders by treating their consumers as people with rich and varied financial lives. We are excited to enter the next phase of growth and invest in maturing the credit bureau platform and building out the product suite.”

Jay Wilson, Partner AlbionVC said “From the very first meeting with Will and Andy, it was clear that they have an unparalleled level of know-how. Infact is led by two visionary founders with a clear mission, deep domain expertise, and technical knowledge. We are thrilled to continue supporting them on their journey to become a category leading credit referencing agency globally.”