Fintech Lender Happy Money Hits Unicorn Status With $50 Million Raise

Pat Maio
Pat Maio has held various reporting and editorial management positions over the past 25 years, having specialized in business and government reporting. He has held reporting jobs with the San Diego Union-Tribune, Orange County Register, Dow Jones News and other newspapers in Ohio, West Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C.
Fintech Lender Happy Money Hits Unicorn Status With $50 Million Raise
Photo by Pickawood on Unsplash

Happy Money, a fintech platform that helps borrowers refinance high-interest rate credit card debt, has claimed unicorn status, announcing $50 million in new funding.

Tustin-based Happy Money disclosed a Series D-1 round Tuesday led by London-based venture capital firm Anthemis Group and CMFG Ventures, the venture capital arm of Madison, Wis.-based mutual insurance company CUNA Mutual Group.


Happy Money CEO Jeff Winner.Photo courtesy of Happy Money

In turn, Happy Money pegged its pre-money valuation as $1.1 billion, which would put it among the ever-growing ranks of tech unicorns. The startup has raised a total of $135 million since its founding in 2009, according to a company spokesperson, with Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings among its existing investors.

Happy Money offers financial tools like its Payoff Loan product, which help borrowers consolidate and pay off unsecured debt. The 400-person company claims to have worked with more than 205,000 borrowers and helped fund $3.7 billion in loans through 2021.

The new funding comes after Happy Money appointed tech industry veteran Jeff Winner as its permanent CEO in November. Winner—who was given the job on an interim basis in August—previously held leadership roles at Twitter and Stripe and served as chief technology officer for Marcus, the consumer banking business of investment bank Goldman Sachs.

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College Grads Are Turning Their Backs on the Tech Industry

Lon Harris
Lon Harris is a contributor to dot.LA. His work has also appeared on ScreenJunkies, RottenTomatoes and Inside Streaming.
College Grads Are Turning Their Backs on the Tech Industry
Evan Xie
A new report in Bloomberg suggests that younger workers and college graduates are moving away from tech as the preferred industry in which to embark on their careers. While big tech companies and startups once promised skilled young workers not just the opportunity to develop cutting-edge, exciting products, but also perks and – for the most talented and ambitious newcomers – a relatively reliable path to wealth. (Who could forget the tales of overnight Facebook millionaires that fueled the previous dot com explosion? There were even movies about it!)
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Are a Vehicle’s Features More Important Than It Being Electric?

David Shultz

David Shultz reports on clean technology and electric vehicles, among other industries, for dot.LA. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Outside, Nautilus and many other publications.

Are a Vehicle’s Features More Important Than It Being Electric?
Photo by Jannes Glas on Unsplash

The state of California wants 100% of new passenger vehicles sales to be fully electric by 2035. Last year, the state hit a nation-leading 16%. That’s pretty good, but 84% is still a long way to go.

A new study, published Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, investigates which factors have been responsible for the rise in new EV sales nationally. The findings indicate that consumers are increasingly likely to choose an electric vehicle, and nearly all of the gains can be explained simply by improving technologies.

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Colleen Wachob On Navigating Her Wellness Journey As An Entrepreneur

Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

Colleen Wachob On Navigating Her Wellness Journey As An Entrepreneur
Courtesy of Behind Her Empire

On this episode of Behind Her Empire, mindbodygreen co-founder and co-CEO Colleen Wachob shares her perspective on managing stress and navigating self-worth as an entrepreneur and the importance of celebrating the wins in your business.

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