Personal finance company Credit Karma is focusing on helping consumers understand financial resources available to them amid the COVID-19 crisis, CEO Kenneth Lin told Cheddar Thursday.
Lin said the company is tracking both government and private aid to help keep its customers informed.
"When there are forgiveness programs, we want to make sure consumers are out in front of them and know that they're available to help them," he said. "One of the things we're trying to understand, and assessing, is can we track all of the programs that are available."
Lin said he expects dozens, if not hundreds, of programs "for the average consumer" and said it will be "a big challenge" weeding through them in order to find the ones its customers will qualify for.
Credit Karma, founded in 2007 and "born in the last recession," according to Lin, is seeing more usage and engagement, even as the economy falters and unemployment claims continue to rise.
"What we are seeing across the industry is more consumers are looking for personal loans… more and more people are looking for mortgages," he said, though Lin said there aren't enough people in call centers or appraisers to get users through the processes.
"So, while rates are low, the system is somewhat frozen," he said.
Swedish buy now, pay later company Klarna is making its highly anticipated public debut on the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday, the latest in a run of high-profile initial public offerings this year. The offering priced at $40 Tuesday, above the forecasted range of $35 to $37 a share, valuing the company at more than $15 billion. The valuation easily makes Klarna one of the biggest IPOs so far in 2025, which has been one of the busier years for companies going public. Other popular IPOs so far this year include the design software company Figma and Circle Internet Group, which issues the USDC stablecoin..
Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison wrested the title of the world’s richest man from longtime holder Elon Musk early Wednesday as stock in his software giant rocketed more than a third in a stunning few minutes of trading. That is according to wealth tracker Bloomberg. A college dropout, the 81-year-old Ellison is now worth $393 billion, Bloomberg says, several billion more than Musk, who had been the world’s richest for four years. The switch in the ranking came after a blockbuster earnings report from Oracle. Forbes still has Musk as the richest, however, valuing his private businesses much higher.
Aurimas Sabulis, CEO of Dextall, unveils how AI‑driven prefabricated façades slash design time by 80%, labor by 87%, and accelerate affordable housing delivery.
