Prudential Financial Makes $10 Million Investment in Mission-Driven Fintech Aura
Summary
This new funding comes at a time of rapid growth for Aura, in which the company has provided approximately $500 million in loans to more than 350,000 borrowers at over 1,200 partner locations since its founding in 2014. “Aura’s accessible, responsible alternative to payday lending is directly aligned with Prudential’s mission to make lives better by solving the financial challenges of a changing world,” said Gerald Pambo-Awich, Director of Strategic Initiatives & Impact Investments at Prudential. Working with financial institutions like Prudential, Aura is able to provide borrowers with affordable loans that have saved them hundreds of millions of dollars in additional fees and interest by avoiding predatory options. Aura is a technology-powered, Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) that provides small, affordable loans to working families in America. Aura has pioneered a cloud-based lending technology that enables trusted local businesses to submit credit applications for centralized review and approval by its proprietary scoring algorithms.