From our days clipping coupons from the newspaper to searching for a coupon code online, consumers look for benefits and advantages when shopping.
Prestige It is one of those companies that helps us achieve this. It has created an ai-powered smart wallet that recommends the right credit card to maximize rewards and cash back when making purchases.
Kudos uses artificial intelligence to discover consumers' spending habits so it can then provide more personalized financial advice, such as maximizing rewards and using credit effectively, Tikue Anazodo, co-founder and CEO of Kudos, told TechCrunch.
Consumers can use Kudos through an app and browser extension, similar to Honey. New companies such as Kard, Power, Bilt Rewards and MaxRewards are also developing in this space.
“Many of our members say that using Kudos is like having Apple Pay, Honey, and Credit Karma all in one app,” Anazodo said via email. “However, we automatically optimize payments, find personalized merchant offers, and provide intelligent financial recommendations, all powered by advanced ai.”
Anazodo founded Kudos with Ahmad Ismail after working together at Google and Affirm. They later exhibited as part of Battlefield 200 at TC Disrupt in 2022.
TechCrunch profiled the company in 2022 as it raised $7 million in seed funding from investors including Patron, QED Investors, SciFi VC, and SV Angel. At the time, Kudos was in beta mode with 36% month-over-month user growth and 90% retention.
Since 2022, Kudos has grown from 1,000 beta testers to 200,000 registered users and increased annualized gross paid merchandise volume to more than $200 million, Anazodo said.
It also has some new features, including MariaGPT, an ai-powered card discovery tool that indexes and recommends over 3,000 cards in its database; Dream Wallet, which offers personalized card recommendations based on the user's spending habits; and Kudos Boost, which offers personalized cashback rewards on top of existing credit card rewards at more than 15,000 partner brands and retailers.
Anazodo declined to be specific about revenue growth other than to say “we are still in the early stages of generating revenue.”
All that growth led investors to pour additional funds into the company. QED Investors has again led $10.2 million in Kudos' Series A. Joining Patron, The Points Guy founder Brian Kelly, Samsung Next, SV Angel, Precursor Ventures, The Mini Fund, Newtype Ventures and Four Cities Fund. This new investment gives Kudos $17.2 million in total venture capital-backed funding raised to date.
Anazodo declined to give specific valuation figures, but said the new valuation is more than double its initial valuation.
The company intends to maintain an agile team. There are currently 14 employees up from 11 in 2022. It will deploy funds into new ai-powered services for its smart wallet product and expand MariaGPT into a general-purpose personal finance assistant and portal that will allow members to book flights. with points so that consumers don't “I don't have to leave Kudos,” Anazodo said.
As part of the investment, Amias Gerety, partner at QED Investors, joins the Kudos board of directors.
“We chose QED Investors to lead the round due to their deep expertise in fintech and their strong belief in our vision for Kudos,” Anazodo said. “Their strategic insights, extensive network, and proven track record of scaling successful fintech companies, such as Credit Karma's leading Series A, made them the ideal partner to help us navigate this next phase of growth.”
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