TomoCredit co-founder and CEO Kristy Kim knew she was going to be an entrepreneur since she was 10 or 11 years previous—however issues didn’t fall into place till she tried to purchase her first car after faculty. “I might say the pivotal expertise that led me to Tomo… was [that] I wished to purchase my first automotive whereas working as an funding banker in San Francisco,” she says.
Kim, a first-generation Korean immigrant who graduated from the College of California, Berkeley, utilized for an auto mortgage at a Lexus dealership and was rejected immediately. After struggling to determine why and the place to go for solutions, Kim ultimately realized it was as a result of she had no credit score historical past in the US.
“I’m properly educated, labored onerous to get a job and obtained a job, and I used to be making a six-figure revenue,” she says. “I did all the appropriate issues as an immigrant I used to be instructed to do. After which right here I’m not having [any] credit score historical past within the U.S., so I get rejected inside seconds of making use of for an auto mortgage.”
Kim realized she wasn’t alone: So many college students, immigrants, girls and different members of marginalized communities battle to safe leases for flats, make huge purchases comparable to automobiles or get accredited for mortgages as a consequence of their lack of credit score historical past or low credit score rating. In 2018, she based TomoCredit in hopes of serving to others perceive and enhance their monetary wellness.
TomoCredit gives a bank card that’s designed to assist customers construct their credit score rating as shortly as potential and receives a small charge from retailers for each buy made with the cardboard. To use for it, all people want is a sound Social Safety quantity or particular person taxpayer identification quantity. TomoCredit makes use of various information sources comparable to checking account data to course of card purposes (so a standard credit score rating isn’t essential) and helps customers construct their scores utilizing a weekly autopay possibility.
The bank card is constructed on Kim’s realization {that a} wealth of transaction information detailing spending habits exists in people’ checking account summaries—information which may make them credit-worthy. To launch TomoCredit, Kim discovered an engineer to investigate the formatting of checking account information and ultimately zero in on patterns associated to account balances with the purpose of coaching an underwriting mannequin, a structured course of utilized by lenders, insurers and traders to guage and assess the chance related to offering financing and figuring out the phrases and situations of transactions.
As soon as it gained momentum and knew find out how to method the datasets, Kim shared the findings with threat managers at banks comparable to Citibank and Wells Fargo and requested if it was helpful for serving to people acquire entry to credit score even when they don’t have any credit score historical past. As a result of many huge banks are set of their methods and have processes that profit the broader inhabitants, she knew beginning her personal firm can be the one means to offer the most effective service to the neglected communities she wished to serve.
“I’ve a finest shot at being the A-plus service for the section of customers who don’t have good credit score or a great credit score rating however good money move and wish to get assistance on find out how to enhance their credit score,” she says.
Because the firm began, it has developed to supply memberships that buyers can select primarily based on their wants and likewise has an AI-powered credit score assistant that gives TomoScores. The money flow-based credit score rating helps companies consider the creditworthiness of debtors who lack a standard credit score rating.
“Whether or not it’s paying off your bank card or researching your auto mortgage rate of interest, come to us as a result of we will give you extra customized recommendation…. In contrast to different firms, we’ve been coaching our underwriting mannequin over the previous six years with 6 billion-plus transaction information,” Kim says. “We’ve been coaching our mannequin to present you customized [financial] recommendation primarily based by yourself revenue degree and personal spending patterns.”
Each week, the TomoCredit crew chats with about 50 clients over the telephone to assemble suggestions about what different options it might probably add to assist them attain monetary objectives. (For instance, a consumer may request to dispute credit score report errors by way of their on-line dashboard.) Sooner or later, Kim hopes to repeatedly present extra instruments and sources for patrons and grow to be their long-term “monetary co-pilots”—somewhat than only a short-term answer.
Whereas TomoCredit continues to innovate, Kim says the corporate nonetheless follows the identical mission it began with, which her workers is glad to remind her of when issues get worrying. “It’s not about one single function or one single enterprise mannequin, one sad buyer, one glad buyer,” she says. “Ultimately, we’re doing this as a result of we consider that the market and the credit score system will ultimately change in the way in which that we need.”
Though change to the credit score system is gradual, it’s occurring, Kim says. The proof is in additional acknowledgment of higher underwriting or the necessity to use extra AI and datasets. “My crew is like, ‘Kristy, you already know what? Perhaps you don’t really feel it each day, however positively issues are transferring in the appropriate route.’”
Kim thinks that rising credit score entry will stay a profit to America’s economic system regardless of any adjustments within the political system, due to capitalism and lenders’ urge for food for increasing their companies. “Irrespective of who’s within the White Home or the place we’re within the political atmosphere, rising credit score entry to customers is at all times essential after which it advantages all people,” she says. “It not simply advantages the customers, it advantages lenders, too.”
Have adverse credit?
Right here’s Kim’s recommendation.
Don’t be afraid to know the place you stand. Everybody has to start out someplace! “Generally individuals get scared or overwhelmed to even begin as a result of they really feel like, ‘Oh, my stuff is horrible,’” she says. “So, it doesn’t give them pleasure to take a look at it.”
Discover the appropriate monetary companion. Kim says some clients are extra snug sharing their information with an organization that makes use of an AI mannequin like TomoCredit, which they discover much less judgmental. “We actually wish to be a spot [where] there’s no stigma,” she says.
Be affected person. Your credit score rating gained’t enhance in a single day. She says that whereas many instances it feels such as you’re not making progress, there’s magnificence in persevering with to maneuver ahead.
“Then later, you see that you simply made an enormous distinction,” she says.
Picture courtesy of Kristy Kim. This text initially appeared within the September/October 2025 subject of SUCCESS® journal.
