Key insights
- Esusu partners with Zillow to enable renters to build credit scores through rent payments. This initiative, 'Credit Climb,' allows renters to report payments, potentially improving their creditworthiness. Zillow's involvement could drive adoption, benefiting both renters and landlords. While positive for financial inclusion, the direct impact on broader US equity markets is limited.
Esusu co-founder and co-CEO Wemimo Abbey speaks with Asking for a Trend Host Josh Lipton about how renters can use Esusu to build credit with their monthly payments, and the company's partnership with Zillow (Z, ZG).
There are 110 million people in this country that rent. Uh, unfortunately, um less than 15% of that data shows up on their credit score. On an average, renters send $1,100 to their landlord. So if you do that math, that's close to $1.4 trillion dollars that is sort of transacted from renters to their landlords, um annually. So what we did is, look, you know, if you pay your mortgage today, it shows up on your credit score, but if you pay your rent, it should definitely shows show up on your credit score. And that's the reason why we've partnered with, you know, 65% of the largest owners and operators of real estate. In addition to that, in a recent partnership with Zillow, um through their through um an initiative called Credit Climb where folks can make sure that data is reflected on their credit report.
What is your business model? We mean like, who who actually who pays for this? Is it landlords, renters? Is it uh financial institutions?
Yeah, we have multiple um approaches. We have certain landlords that said, look, my renter are my most important asset. and if we report their rental data into the credit bureau, they can improve their credit score. and if you if you have a high credit score, um you know, which means you can borrow money at a lower rate. You know, there's an interesting statistics that if you have a poor credit score, you can pay over a quarter million dollars in interest over your lifetime, uh which is massive. a big, big, uh you know, expense folks have to um bear. So landlords do pay for the service and we also have a direct to consumer practice um where folks can pay an annual fee. For example, our relationship with Zillow, you can pay 20 bucks through the credit climb product and make sure that data is transmitted to the three credit bureaus um when you pay your rent on time.