When Einat Steklov, co-founder and CEO of Kashable, came to the United States, she was well educated, gainfully employed, passionate about entrepreneurship and yet completely unable to gain access to financing. As an immigrant from Israel, she recalls, “I literally was not able to establish a credit profile with any credit bureau.”
This, unfortunately, is not an uncommon problem. Nearly half – or 47%[1] of American adults are subprime or credit invisible, rendering them underserved by financial services. When Steklov met her business partner and co-founder Rishi Kumar she found that he was also an immigrant that came from India to study at MIT, and, like her, did not exist in the credit bureaus’ files for his first few years in the US. Together, they decided to launch a business that would extend an important service to those traditionally left out of the financial services: access to affordable credit.
“If you think about lending in the United States,” she said, “nearly every lender checks credit scores and uses that score to assess a value on the applicant’s credit profile. Different lenders may have a different range of credit scores that they want to lend to, but when we started Kashable, we said, ‘Let’s think a little bit outside of this box of credit scores.’”
Kashable developed a business model where, by partnering with employers, they underwrite employees based primarily on their employment data rather than relying on credit scores alone. This allowed employees from across the credit and wage spectrum to access low-cost loans they could automatically repay through payroll, just like many other voluntary benefits such as pet insurance, retirement plan contributions or gym membership.
Throughout the years, Kashable loans have been a lifeline for employees at hundreds of companies. Many borrowers have used their loans to repair their cars so they can get to work, to pay down expensive debt taken on to pay medical bills, or to manage unexpected household expenses when emergencies strike.
Access to affordable credit goes further than the moment of hardship. When borrowers without credit scores took out Kashable loans, 80% of them were able to create a credit rating by the end of repaying their loan; 56% of repeat borrowers saw their FICO score improve by an average of 44 points[2]. A loan can be a step in the right direction toward establishing a better credit profile that will allow them to take other financial steps outside from Kashable —such as qualifying for a mortgage so they can build their wealth through home ownership, financing an automobile, or reducing stress that happens from too much expensive debt.
“A low-cost loan can be the beginning of a journey to build up a credit profile, to improve, to do better for yourself. That’s what Kashable is about. The partnerships that Kashable has with dozens of employers and benefit platforms allow us to deliver better products than employees can achieve on their own in the open market. It is especially important in times of hardship,” says Steklov.
Making credit available to employees through Kashable can have a dramatic impact on employee morale and productivity. In a recent survey[3], Kashable found that 90% of employees indicated that Kashable has helped to reduce their financial stress, and 76% of employees reported that they are more productive at work knowing they have a financial safety net. Offering Kashable loans can also increase employee retention. The same survey reported that for more than half (57%) of employees[4] access to Kashable made them more likely to stay with their employer. For employers, Kashable offers an opportunity to offer a transformative benefit, one that will make employees happier, more focused and more committed to their employers.
Kashable’s mission is ambitious. The company strives to offer socially responsible financing to employees as an employer-sponsored voluntary benefit, while using innovative, patented technology to improve the financial well-being of working America with a commitment to both reliability and affordability.
It is that mission that continues to drive Kashable forward – giving hard-working Americans the support they need on their journey to financial wellness so they, like Steklov and Kumar, can realize their dreams regardless of where they start out.
[1] The Consumer Credit Card Market, Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, September 2021. 2021 Consumer Credit Card Market Report (consumerfinance.gov)
[2] Based on Kashable data from borrowers from May, 2016 to February, 2021
[3] https://blog.kashable.com/report-kashable-customer-survey-2022/
[4] https://blog.kashable.com/report-kashable-customer-survey-2022/