Credit Sesame is a free web based tool that helps consumers manage their credit and save money on their loans. It also provides consumers with a free credit score. No credit card or subscription is required to register or obtain the credit score, which is updated monthly.

Headquartered in Sunnyvale

Sunnyvale

Sunnyvale may refer to:*Sunnyvale, California, a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States, and the most populous place with this name*Sunnyvale, Auckland, a suburb of Auckland, New Zealand*Sunnyvale, Otago, a suburb of Dunedin, New Zealand...

, Calif., Credit Sesame launched in private beta at TechCrunchDisrupt 2010. As of June 2011, the company's registered users have a combined $3 billion of loans, which Credit Sesame monitors and analyzes for potential savings on a daily basis.

Founder and Financing

Credit Sesame was founded by Adrian Nazari, the company's Chief Executive Officer, who previously co-founded Financial Crossing, Inc. and served as its President and CEO. He was also CEO and Chairman of the Board at Financial Circuit, Inc.

In March 2011, Credit Sesame announced that it had closed a $6.15 million second round of funding, led by Menlo Ventures

Menlo Ventures

Menlo Ventures is a venture capital firm located at 3000 Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, California.The firm was founded as one of the earliest venture capital firms in Silicon Valley in 1976 and provides provides technology venture capital funding for seed, early stage and growth companies...

 and Inventus Capital.

Bank-Level Analytics

Credit Sesame analyzes consumers' credit profiles based on the information in their Experian

Experian

Experian plc, formerly known as CCN Systems, is a global credit information group with operations in 36 countries. The company employs 15,500 people with corporate headquarters in Dublin, Ireland and operational headquarters in Nottingham, England and Costa Mesa, California, US...

 credit reports. As soon as a consumer's profile is created, Credit Sesame begins analyzing their current loans (including mortgage and credit card accounts) and looks for alternative loans that will help that consumer save. This is accomplished by using a patent-pending bank-level analytics

Analytics

Analytics is the application of computer technology, operational research, and statistics to solve problems in business and industry. Analytics is carried out within an information system: while, in the past, statistics and mathematics could be studied without computers and software, analytics has...

 engine developed by Stanford University

Stanford University

The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...

 analysts, which analyzes the mortgage lending market daily for new financing options.

The mortgage and refinance loans Credit Sesame finds for its users are personalized, based on each individual user's credit file, the estimated value of their home and the financial goals they have set up upon registration.

Because it lists all loans and credit in one place, pulled directly from the consumer's credit report, Credit Sesame provides a complete picture of that consumer's credit.

Credit Sesame currently powers Mint.com

Mint.com

Mint.com is a free web-based personal financial management service for the US and Canada created by entrepreneur Aaron Patzer. Mint originally provided account aggregation through a deal with Yodlee, but has since moved to using Intuit for connecting to accounts...

's Home Loans tool.

Free Credit Score

The free score consumers get from Credit Sesame is an Experian National Equivalency Score, which is commercially available to lenders and is very close to the widely used FICO score. The range for the National Equivalency score is 360 to 840; the range for FICO scores is 350 to 850.

Business Model

Credit Sesame is free to consumers. The company makes money when a consumers closes on a loan obtained with the help of Credit Sesame.

Press

• June 2011: Today Show, NBC
  NBC
  The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
  
  : Today's Money: Money-Maximizing Web Sites
• June 2011: MORE Magazine: Make Even More Money
• June 2011: Mint.com
  Mint.com
  Mint.com is a free web-based personal financial management service for the US and Canada created by entrepreneur Aaron Patzer. Mint originally provided account aggregation through a deal with Yodlee, but has since moved to using Intuit for connecting to accounts...
  
  : Free Credit Scores (Seriously, They’re Really Free)
• March 2011: The Wall Street Journal
  The Wall Street Journal
  The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
  
  : The Daily Start-up
• December 2010: Money Crashers: Credit Sesame Review – Free Credit and Debt Management Tool
• October 2010: Consumer Reports
  Consumer Reports
  Consumer Reports is an American magazine published monthly by Consumers Union since 1936. It publishes reviews and comparisons of consumer products and services based on reporting and results from its in-house testing laboratory. It also publishes cleaning and general buying guides...
  
  : Finovate Fall Day 1: Financial voyeurism and a free credit score
• September 2010: CNN Money: Today in Tech: News around the Web