There is no shortage of companies out there that promise to repair and restore your credit. However, for 21-year-old Michael Broughton, that promise is not only one he can keep, but one he’ll gladly do for free.
The CEO and co-founder of Perch Credit — an app that’s designed to teach financial literacy — just closed a $2.5 million seed investment round, according to a press release. Now, he’s ready to take the app to the next level.
A press release states in this latest round of funding, whose investors include Marcy Venture Partners, Citi, Softbank Opportunity Fund, Concrete Rose, and Village Capital, the young entrepreneur said that Perch will achieve its first major milestone: helping more than 100,000 people build their credit score. Step one of reaching this goal is already underway, with the Perch Beta officially launching on iOS today.
Broughton, himself, said that he came up with the idea after he was denied a loan for $10,000, which he needed to finance the remainder of his schooling at USC. As one of nine children in a military family, Broughton didn’t have the credit history, the finances, or the credit score to get the last bit of money he needed to finish college.
He then began conducting his own research, and ultimately founded the Perch app in hopes of educating — and helping — young Black men and women repair their credit for free.
“Perch is an app that allows users to build credit nontraditionally by reporting payments on things like rent and Netflix accounts,” he said, in a statement. “Until now, it’s been nearly impossible to build credit without getting a credit card. The trouble with that is you’re generally not going to get a credit card without having established credit already. This is the kind of no-win scenario that Perch is hoping to help young people, especially young people of color, overcome easily.”
Perch also allows its users to record other payments not typically reported on a credit score, such as their rent payments, to further boost and improve their credit scores.
To download the app, head directly to the iOS App Store or click here.
