This month, I spent some time with Nova Credit founder and CEO Misha Esipov to talk about his company, one of the original innovators in alternative consumer credit, underwriting, and financial data.

Misha has been running Nova Credit since 2016, when he and his co-founders graduated from Stanford Business School. He founded the company predicated on the insight that – even for well-qualified graduate students – it was impossible for people to move to the US and apply for credit. The company has grown far beyond its initial product set, and recently celebrated their $45 million Series C in late 2023 from Kleiner Perkins, General Catalyst, Index Ventures and Y Combinator.

Misha Esipov is the co-founder and CEO of Nova Credit. Before founding Nova Credit, Misha was a private equity investor at Apollo Global Management, a $232 billion global alternative asset manager. Misha started his career at Goldman Sachs, where he helped execute more than $10 billion in corporate financing, mergers, and acquisitions. Misha holds a B.S. in Mathematics and Finance from New York University and an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

You can find him here on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Nova Credit is a credit infrastructure and analytics company that enables businesses to grow responsibly by harnessing alternative credit data.

The company is a CRA that leverages its unique data infrastructure, compliance framework, and credit expertise to help lenders fill in the gaps that exist in traditional credit analytics. Nova Credit provides access to the fragmented universe of consumer financial data and transforms it into compliant, actionable risk analytics through a suite of solutions designed to increase conversion through expanded coverage, speed, and reliability.

Leading organizations, such as American Express, Verizon, HSBC, RBC, SoFi, Scotiabank, Appfolio, and Yardi, work with Nova Credit to make smarter credit decisions through cash flow underwriting with Cash Atlas™, quickly and accurately verify income with Income Navigator, and reach new-to-country consumers with Credit Passport®.