Kudos has raised $10.2 million in a Series A funding round led by QED Investors for its AI-powered smart wallet and shopping assistant.
Patron, The Points Guy founder Brian Kelly, Samsung Next, SV Angel, Precursor Ventures, The Mini Fund, Newtype Ventures and the Four Cities Fund joined the round.
Founded in 2001 by a team with experience at Google, PayPal and Affirm, Kudos is an app and browser extension that acts as a smart wallet assistant that can recommend or automatically select the best credit card for shoppers to use when paying to maximize their rewards and cash back.
Recently, the company launched several new features, including MariaGPT, an AI-powered card discovery tool with over 3000 cards currently in its database; Dream Wallet, which automatically recommends cards that fill gaps in a member's wallet based on spending habits; and Kudos Boost for personalised rewards across over 15,000 partner brands, including Walmart and Sephora.
Since its seed funding round, Kudos has grown its member base to over 200,000 registered users and increased its annualized checkout Gross Merchandise Value to $200 million.
With the new funding in place, it plans to launch an AI-powered hub providing spend optimisation insights, expand MariaGPT into a general-purpose personal finance assistant, and a portal allowing members to book flights with points.
Tikue Anazodo, CEO, Kudos, says: "Consumers want to know they're getting the most for their money as they juggle budgets, multiple credit cards and rewards systems that can be confusing. Kudos simplifies all of that with one easy-to-use app and extension."
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