Why We Invested: FairPlay

We’re thrilled to continue to be part of the journey for FairPlay, a software company that has the potential to fundamentally transform American society by bring greater transparency and fairness to lending decisions. We were the first investors in this company late last year and continued to build on our position with this latest round of financing.

When we met Kareem and John, the founders, we were struck by their dedication to addressing the deep and systemic challenges that minority populations and women have historically faced — and continue to face — in accessing credit. This divide has not improved as more and more decisions are made algorithmically. In fact, many of the algorithms that lenders use in deciding who gets credit enshrine many of the same biases that were widespread decades ago. Obviously, this is bad for our society. But it’s also bad business, and many otherwise creditworthy consumers continue to be denied credit unfairly.

FairPlay’s software solution can quickly analyze lending models and determine, and quantify, lending bias. The company has quickly established itself as a leader in “Fairness-as-a-Service” allowing consumers to access cheaper capital, banks to reduce reputational risk, and overall pricing in the credit markets to improve. One key component of the firm’s value proposition is its ability to quickly and efficiently offer Lesser Discriminatory Alternatives (“LDAs”), which act as a real-time search on lending options for underserved consumers.

FairPlay, the world’s first “Fairness as a Service” company, helps lenders make their underwriting and collections decisions fairer and more profitable by debiasing the algorithms in many approval processes

Since our first investment, we have been impressed by Kareem and John’s execution. They’ve quickly added a number of high-profile lenders to the platform, established themselves as intellectual leaders in this industry, and have assembled an impressive early team. We’re excited to continue to support them on their journey to make American finance more fair, transparent and equitable.