Kenneth Lin is an American tech entrepreneur best known as the CEO of Credit Karma, an online credit score monitoring service.
Early life and education
At the age of four, Kenneth Lin emigrated with his parents from China to the United States. Lin’s parents worked in the kitchen at the blackjack tables of Las Vegas casinos to pay his tuition fees in Boston University.
Kenneth Lin earned a BA in economics and mathematics from Boston University in 1998.
Early career
After Lin graduated college at Boston University in 1998, he worked as an Analyst in Partners First and left the company in 2000. Lin was a Manager of Business Consulting in FairMarket from 2000 – 2002. From August 2001 – 2005, Lin was also a Principal and Founder at Adrenaline Group, LLC, where he started Adrenaline Zone, LAN Gamers Centers in Providence, Tempe, and Cambridge. Lin was a Senior Marketing Analyst at Upromise from June 2003 – September 2004.
Lin worked in E-Loan as the Director of Analytics, Research and Cross Sell from August 2004 – July 2006. Lin was also the President in Multilytics Marketing, Inc., an online marketing agency focusing on rich media and data-driven search engine marketing. As the president of the company, they managed over $40 million a year in marketing dollars. They have very strong financial services solutions and have several Fortune 500 companies as clients.
Credit Karma
Kenneth Lin has the vision for Credit Karma began in 2006 when he was disappointed by the cost of attaining his credit score and pursued to create an alternative. Lin, Nichole Mustard, and Ryan Graciano co-founded Credit Karma, an American multinational personal finance company on March 8, 2007, with the website going on live in February 2008.
Early investors include former president of E-Loan, Mark Lefanowicz and CEO of Prosper, Chris Larson. Credit Karma is striving to reinvent how people apply for loans and allows them to monitor their credit. The new investment costs it at over $3 billion. Credit Karma initially created as a free online service for people to monitor their credit, aiming squarely at the incumbent Experian’s and TransUnion of the world. But the company has since increased its objectives to become a place for not only monitoring and store personal credit data but also to apply for loans that fit a customer’s financial demands. On the website, users can obtain their credit information while being pitched credit cards, personal loans and more recently, auto loans that match their profile.
Credit Karma joins the increasing figure of unicorns, Silicon Valley lingo for startups with valuations in the billions of dollars that are building large growth rounds. San Francisco HR software company Zenefits just increased $500 million at a $4 billion valuation. And workplace collaboration platform Slack grew $160 million at a $2.8 billion valuation. Credit Karma operates with most of the major U.S. banks, as well as alternative creditors like Lending Club. Credit Karma does not operate with further controversial forms of lending including payday loans, which saddle borrowers with high interest rates. Credit Karma attempts to manage all of the debt in its customers’ financial life with more than 40 million members.
Credit Karma settled a $2.5 million Series A funding round in November 2009, led by QED Investors with participation from Felicis Ventures, Founders Fund, and SV Angel. Credit Karma obtained $30 million in Series B funding in 2013, led by Ribbit Capital and Susquehanna Growth Equity. Credit Karma grew $85 million in Series C financing in March 2014, led by Google Capital with the participation from existing investors and Tiger Global Management. In September 2014, the company followed that with $75 million in follow on funding from Google Capital, Susquehanna Growth Equity, and Tiger Global Management. Credit Karma has grown $368.5 million in financing as of 2015, at a valuation of $3.5 billion.
Credit Karma’s products and services
Credit Karma provides free credit reports and credit scores from national credit bureaus Equifax and TransUnion, alongside daily credit monitoring from TransUnion. Users can see updates to their credit reports and credit scores on Credit Karma once a week.
The company also grants credit tools, such as tailored financial recommendations based on each individual user’s credit profile; and a Credit Score Simulator, which simulates the effect of potential financial actions on a user’s credit score. In addition to its free credit reports and tools, Credit Karma offers a My Spending Tool through account aggregation service Yodlee, which allows users to track their credit card, banking, and loan balances and transactions within Credit Karma. The company also hosts user forums and financial product reviews and financial calculator tools.
Credit Karma introduced a campaign called “My Money Story” in 2015, in which the company encouraged customers to share their experiences on often restricted financial matters openly with the world using the official social media hashtag #MyMoneyStory. The company provided several short movies about individuals and their own financial experiences. Credit Karma stated in December 2016 that Credit Karma Tax, its tax preparation online service that lets most Americans file their state and federal taxes at zero cost. The company announced it filed 1 million tax returns in its debut tax season in six months on June 28, 2017. Credit Karma began Unclaimed Money in seven states on May 9, 2017. The product that supports users finds unclaimed money, such as insurance payouts and unclaimed refunds.
Acquisitions
Credit Karma acquired mobile notifications app developer Snowball on December 30, 2015, for an undisclosed amount. On December 7, 2016Credit Karma also acquired AFJC Corporation, owner of OnePriceTaxes.com. Credit Karma acquired money reclamation service Claimdog in 2016. For an undisclosed amount, Credit Karma obtained personal finance company, Penny on March 14, 2018. Credit Karma acquired mortgage platform Approved for an undisclosed amount on August 16, 2018.