💡 Kudos Raises $10M Series A
Kudos, an AI-powered smart wallet company, recently secured $10.2M in Series A funding. This round was led by QED Investors, with participation from Patron, The Points Guy founder Brian Kelly, Samsung Next, SV Angel, Precursor Ventures, The Mini Fund, Newtype Ventures, and Four Cities Fund. Co-founder and CEO Tikue Anazodo said, “We are still in the early stages of revenue generation.” The funding will be used to expand AI-powered services and the MariaGPT personal finance assistant.
📈 Significant Growth Since 2022
Kudos exhibited remarkable growth since its 2022 beta phase. The user base expanded from 1,000 beta testers to 200,000 registered users, with an annualized checkout gross merchandise volume surpassing $200M. Anazodo stated, “Many of our members say that using Kudos is like having Apple Pay, Honey, and Credit Karma all in one app.” Kudos' team grew modestly, from 11 employees in 2022 to 14 today.
🧠 Advanced AI Features
Kudos introduced several new features, including MariaGPT, an AI-powered card discovery tool indexing over 3,000 cards, and Dream Wallet, which provides personalized card recommendations. Kudos Boost offers additional cash-back rewards on top of existing credit card rewards across 15,000 partner brands and retailers. These innovations aim to maximize consumer benefits and optimize spending habits.
🤝 Strategic Partnerships
Anazodo and co-founder Ahmad Ismail previously worked at Google and Affirm before starting Kudos. Kudos participated in the Battlefield 200 at TC Disrupt in 2022, raising $7M in seed funding from investors like Patron and QED Investors. QED Investors, known for scaling fintech companies, led the Series A, with partner Amias Gerety joining the board. Anazodo emphasized QED’s strategic insights and network as vital to Kudos' next growth phase.
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