Esusu, a fintech platform that helps renters build their credit, has raised $50 million in a Series C funding round at a $1.2 billion valuation.
Renters remain largely excluded from the traditional credit system: it is estimated that $1.4 trillion is paid to landlords each year in the U.S., but only 20% of these landlords choose to report rent paid. As a result, millions of reliable renters remain in a category called “invisible credit.”
“110 million people in America rent … and less than 10% of that data goes into their credit score,” Esusu co-founder and CEO Wemimo Abbey said Thursday in an interview on CNBC's “Worldwide Exchange.” “When people pay rent, we make sure that’s reflected in their credit score,” he said.
Although on-time mortgage payments are known to improve a person's credit score, many renters have no credit history. Esusu reports on-time rent payments to credit reporting agencies so tenants can build their ratings. Over 50 million Americans do not have a credit history with the three major credit bureaus: Experian, Equifax and TransUnion.
The company says renters using the system have already taken advantage of $30 billion in mortgages.
“Esusu is fundamentally changing the way the financial system can work for everyone,” Sean Mendy, partner at Westbound Equity Partners and lead investor in the deal, said in a statement. “If people are given the tools to rise, they will.”
Esusu was ranked No. 49 on CNBC's 2025 Disruptor 50 list.
Esusu works with 65% of the largest commercial property owners and property managers in the US, as well as banks. Since its launch in 2016, the platform has grown to support more than five million rental units nationwide, reaching approximately 12 million renters and processing nearly $100 billion in annual rental volume. Landlords using its technology include Bell Partners, BH Management, Blackstone, Cortland, Invitation Homes, Jonathan Rose Companies, Kayne Anderson, Morgan Properties, Nuveen Real Estate, Pretium, Related Companies, TruAmerica and WinnCompanies.
The fintech company wants to use the new funds to expand three initiatives. It will expand the distribution of its rental reporting API through what it calls “rental reporting as a service.” One of the latest partners in this initiative is Esusu Technology, which now reaches 228 million monthly active users through the real estate platform Zillow. The company also plans to launch Esusu Pay in 2026, which will allow tenants to split the monthly rent into installments.
Esusu will also focus on the ability to bring more emphasis to rental data in mortgage underwriting. The Federal Housing Finance Agency has formalized the inclusion of rental data in mortgage insurance, which requires verified rental and identity data. Esusu acquired identity verification company Celeri earlier this year. Esusu already has partnerships with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to increase the number of units nationwide that report rent as part of the credit.
Esusu founders Abbey and Samir Goel grew up as immigrants from Lagos (Nigeria) and New Delhi (India) with financial difficulties in their families, which was a founding motivation for Esusu. “When we came here, we had no credit. We went to one of the largest financial institutions to borrow money. We were turned away and had to borrow from a predatory lender who wanted to lend at an interest rate of over 400%,” Abbey told CNBC in a June 2025 interview. “My mother sold my father's wedding ring. We borrowed money from church members and that's how we started.”