Kudos lands $10M for an AI smart wallet that picks the best credit card for purchases
Summary
It has created an AI-powered smart wallet that recommends the right credit card to maximize rewards and cash back when making purchases.Kudos uses artificial intelligence to figure out consumer spending habits so it can then provide more personalized financial advice, like maximizing rewards and utilizing credit effectively, Tikue Anazodo, co-founder and CEO of Kudos, told TechCrunch.Consumers can use Kudos via an app and browser extension, similar to Honey. There are startups like Kard, Power, Bilt Rewards and MaxRewards developing in this space, too.Many of our members say that using Kudos is like having Apple Pay, Honey and Credit Karma all in one app, Anazodo said via email. However, we automatically optimize payments, find personalized merchant offers and provide smart financial recommendations, all powered by advanced AI.Anazodo started Kudos with Ahmad Ismail after working together at Google and Affirm. At the time, Kudos was in beta mode with 36% month-over-month in user growth and 90% retention.Since 2022, Kudos grew from 1,000 beta testers to 200,000 registered users and increased annualized checkout gross merchandise volume to over $200 million, Anazodo said.It also has some new features, including MariaGPT, an AI-powered card discovery tool indexing and recommending over 3,000 cards in its database; Dream Wallet, which provides personalized card recommendations based on a users spending habits; and Kudos Boost, which delivers personalized cash-back rewards on top of existing credit card rewards across over 15,000 partner brands and retailers.Anazodo declined to get specific about revenue growth other than to say we are still in the early stages of revenue generation.All of that growth led investors to put additional funds into the company. Their strategic insights, extensive network and proven track record in scaling successful fintech companies, such as leading Credit Karmas Series A, made them the ideal partner to help us navigate this next phase of growth.Got a news tip or inside information about a topic we covered?