ClearScore secures US$200m investment from Invus Opportunities
Invus Opportunities, the global equity investor, has made a substantial, long term investment in ClearScore, the UK’s leading credit marketplace, to accelerate the growth in the business globally. ClearScore currently serves over 14 million customers worldwide, with a growing user base in Australia.
This investment totalling US$200m, at a valuation of US$700m, is an exciting development for one of the UK’s leading fintechs, that has supported millions of customers over the last 6 years especially through the pandemic. ClearScore has long standing profitability and is coming out of the COVID crisis with an evolving suite of innovative products. This investment will accelerate ClearScore’s ongoing investments to expand its team, product suite, and customer base globally.
Commenting on today’s announcement, Stephen Smyth, Managing Director for ClearScore Australia, said, “ClearScore has over 400,000 Aussie users and the ClearScore app is already the most popular credit scoring app in Australia.
“The investment announced today will enable us to create additional jobs here in Australia and contribute to growing the fintech industry locally. It will also allow us to accelerate by growing the userbase and work further with our partners to create the best user experience to access credit scores for free and find great deals on loans and cards”.
Invus Opportunities is an investment firm that specifically takes long term and significant positions in companies where they believe in both the management of the organisation and the fundamentals of the business, and where they can make a significant impact. The investment is a mix of primary and secondary, with existing investors – QED, Blenheim Chalcot and LeadEdge – together with management, retaining the majority of their positions in ClearScore, whilst allowing Invus Opportunities to take a significant minority position in the company.
The deal sees Benjamin Tsai of Invus Opportunities joining the ClearScore board, with co-founders Nigel Morris remaining as Chairman and Justin Basini continuing as Chief Executive.
Justin Basini, Co-Founder and CEO, ClearScore said, “We welcome Invus Opportunities to the board and look forward to working with their team as we continue to grow ClearScore in the UK and internationally. As one of the only profitable UK fintech business operating at real scale, we didn’t need to raise money, but rather we chose to partner with Invus. We made this decision as a team because of Invus’ track record of working strategically over the long term with their businesses to recognise global opportunities, whilst delivering superior services to consumers. I have been incredibly impressed with Invus’ insight and I’m looking forward to working closely with them to deliver our vision, that ClearScore will become an indispensable financial partner to millions more users around the world.”
Benjamin Tsai commented, “We partner best with ambitious companies who are committed to making a positive impact on the lives of their customers. For us, ClearScore does this exceptionally well, as evidenced by their innovative product offering and ever-growing user base. We see huge potential in the business, already sustainable and profitable, and are excited to be involved in the ClearScore journey.”
