According to CNBC, fintech platform Esusu has raised $50 million in a Series C funding round, achieving a $1.2 billion valuation. The company, founded in 2016 by Wemimo Abbey and Samir Goel, helps renters build credit scores by reporting their on-time rent payments to major bureaus like Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. It now partners with 65% of the largest U.S. commercial real estate owners, covering over 5 million rental units and about 12 million renters, processing nearly $100 billion in annual lease volume. The company says its users have already accessed $30 billion in mortgages. Esusu plans to use the new capital to expand its “rent reporting as a service” API, launch an installment payment product called Esusu Pay in 2026, and leverage new federal rules that require rental data in mortgage underwriting, aided by its recent acquisition of identity verification firm Celeri.
The Invisible Economy Gets a Voice
Here’s the thing: the core problem Esusu is tackling is absolutely massive, and kind of absurd when you think about it. Millions of people prove their financial reliability every single month by paying a huge bill—rent—on time, and the system just… ignores it. It’s a $1.4 trillion annual proof-of-trust that doesn’t count. So Esusu’s model isn’t just a nice-to-have feature; it’s plugging a fundamental hole in how we measure financial health. The fact that they’re now embedded with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and that the Federal Housing Finance Agency is formalizing rental data in underwriting, shows this is moving from a fringe benefit to a core component of the financial infrastructure. That’s a huge shift.
Beyond Reporting: The Fintech Playbook
Now, the rent reporting itself is the wedge. But look at where they’re going next. An API service means they want to be the invisible plumbing for *every* property tech and financial app. The Zillow partnership, reaching 228 million monthly users, is a masterstroke for distribution. And Esusu Pay, the upcoming installment plan product, is where the real revenue potential likely lies. Once you’re the trusted source for validating someone’s rental history, offering them flexible payment options is a natural—and lucrative—next step. It’s a classic fintech play: solve a critical, overlooked problem to gain trust and a user base, then layer on financial products. The founders’ personal stories of predatory lending aren’t just marketing; they’re a blueprint for the services they don’t want others to need.
A New Credit Foundation
So what does this mean long-term? Basically, we might be seeing the early stages of a parallel credit system being built. One that doesn’t solely rely on credit card debt and car loans, but on consistent, mandatory housing payments. For the 50 million Americans who are “credit invisible,” this isn’t just about getting a better score for a credit card. It’s about unlocking the foundational asset of wealth building: a mortgage. If Esusu and similar platforms succeed, the path to homeownership could start on day one of your first apartment lease, not years later after you’ve taken on other kinds of debt. That’s a profound change. The question is, will the legacy credit bureaus fully embrace this data, or will they see it as a threat to their traditional models? Either way, the train has left the station.
