Deserve Announced As Finalist In Fast Company’s 2018 World Changing Ideas Awards

On April 9, 2018, Fast Company announced the winners and finalists of its World Changing Ideas Awards, which honor businesses, policies, projects, and concepts that offer innovative solutions to the issues facing humanity. Among those honored is Deserve, an analytics-based financial technology company that uses machine learning and alternative metrics to help people build credit and achieve financial independence. All of the finalists, including Deserve, are highlighted in the May issue of the print magazine, which hit newsstands on April 9.
 
Deserve looks to provide millions of adults without a credit card the ability to access credit, even if they do not qualify for traditional lending based on the FICO system. FICO is based on your credit history, which young people who are just starting out naturally lack. Deserve opens the doors to credit for this huge demographic by using a proprietary algorithm and considering consumer attributes that traditional lenders overlook, like education, current financial health, and future employability, to predict credit potential instead of only assessing credit history.
 
Now in its second year, the World Changing Ideas Awards showcases 12 winners and more than 200 finalists. A panel of eminent judges selected winners and finalists from a pool of more than 1,300 entries in 12 categories, from Food to Energy to Developing World Technology. Honorees include big-name brands like Microsoft and Walmart, nonprofits like the Anti-Defamation League and Unicef, government programs from Los Angeles and Ontario, and innovative startups like Aerofarms, Aspiration, Matternet, and Deserve. The 2018 awards featured entries from across the globe, from India to Brazil to Rwanda.
 
Fast Company’s May issue celebrates these world changing ideas, highlighting how Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has spearheaded a solution to the city’s housing crisis by using backyards as a building place for tiny houses; Facebook, whose Disaster Maps feature helps rescuers allocate resources after disasters; L’Oreal, which has designed a tool to make sure its products are as sustainable as possible; and The North Face, which has designed a new wool beanie that is sourced from sheep farms that use agricultural practices that emit less carbon than they produce.
 
“It has been my personal mission to change the antiquated credit system since I came to the US as an international student and struggled to gain financial independence,” said Kalpesh Kapadia, CEO and founder of Deserve. “We at Deserve are proud to be recognized as the first company breaking the chain of abuse in credit and are honored to join this global community of innovators altering the status quo across a myriad of industries.”
 
For more information about Deserve or to apply for a credit card, please visit www.deserve.com.
 
About Deserve®
Deserve uses machine learning and alternative data to provide millennials and Gen Z’s access to fair credit products and the tools to achieve financial independence. Deserve is a venture-backed fintech startup whose investors include Accel, Pelion Venture Partners, Aspect Ventures, Mission Holdings, Alumni Venture Group, Sparklabs Ventures, Fenway Summer Ventures and GDP Venture. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Accounts are issued by Celtic Bank, a Utah Chartered Industrial Bank, Member FDIC.
 
About the World Changing Ideas Awards
World Changing Ideas is one of Fast Company’s major annual awards programs and is focused on social good, seeking to elevate finished products and brave concepts that make the world better. A panel of judges from across sectors choose winners and finalists based on feasibility and the potential for impact. With a goal of awarding ingenuity and fostering innovation, Fast Company draws attention to ideas with great potential and helps them expand their reach to inspire more people to start work on solving the problems that affect us all.

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