Pave, the online marketplace lender focused on providing access to affordable credit through a personal and transparent funding experience, today announced the nationwide launch of its new platform, focused on serving Millennial borrowers across the United States.
Pave is committed to assisting the next generation succeed both financially and professionally and has designed an affordable consumer loan specifically tailored to empower the careers and goals of Millennials.
"Since the financial crisis in 2008, countless members of our generation have been unable to access capital to accelerate their personal and professional development, despite having enormous potential and great careers ahead of them," noted Oren Bass, Pave's co-founder and CEO. "We saw a huge opportunity to provide funding to ambitious individuals and enable their success via a customized loan product. Pave fixes the murky and confusing system that penalizes millions of borrowers."
Following a successful pilot program in New York, Pave's affordable short-term consumer loan enables Millennials across America to borrow up to $25,000. Pave's unique approach to underwriting takes a holistic view of a person's situation and potential, not just their FICO score. "Credit scores are not always the best measure of credit risk, especially for those who have limited credit history and are early in their careers. We treat credit information in an innovative way, as well as look beyond one's current financial status to include future earning potential," said David Rosen, Pave's Chief Risk Officer and former Director of Risk Management at American Express responsible for new-to-credit applications.
Approximately 60 percent of Pave's borrowers use funds to provide the financial lift they need to further professional development or pursue a major milestone. Another 40 percent are using the funds to consolidate or refinance debt. "I withdrew my application with another [online] lender as I was going through the Pave process. The responsiveness and simplicity of Pave's platform and team were night and day compared to other marketplace lenders," said Silki Cho, who used the Pave loan to eliminate $25,000 of credit card debt.