Before Esusu could help anyone build credit, Samir Goel needed someone else’s credit to rent an apartment. A friend signed the lease. Goel slept in the small room and rented out the larger one on Airbnb, using the proceeds to cover living expenses. He was building a financial inclusion company while struggling to qualify for ordinary financial life. The irony had rent due.
- Esusu sends verified on-time rent payments to all three major U.S. credit bureaus.
- Landlords and partner platforms provide distribution; renters gain a record of a bill they already pay.
- The opportunity is credit visibility. A higher score, cheaper loan or mortgage remains an individual outcome.
The savings idea met an emergency
Goel and Wemimo Abbey brought family experiences of financial exclusion to the business. They met at a Clinton Global Initiative conference and later reconnected over chocolate at Max Brenner in New York. In 2018, they left corporate jobs to work on Esusu full time.
The original product let people save in groups. It had customers and generated revenue, but selling financial software directly to consumers was expensive. Trust had to precede the request for sensitive information. Licensing the software to nonprofits and community banks provided income, although those buyers had limited budgets.
Then customers described a different difficulty. They understood saving. When an emergency arrived, they lacked the credit history to borrow. “we were solving the wrong problem,” Goel told Antler’s Early Days podcast. Esusu shifted toward credit building and selling through landlords. Customer conversations had altered both the product and the buyer.
The transition had a personal bill: more than $100,000 in credit card debt between the founders, according to Goel. Their early savings revenue helped finance reporting software. Acumen led a $1.6 million seed round in 2019.
A receipt learns a second language
Consider an on-time rental payment. The landlord receives money. The tenant keeps a home. Yet the payment may contribute nothing to the tenant’s credit file. A mortgage payment has a reporting pathway; rent often needs someone to construct one.
Esusu connects property management records to the credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. Its expertise sits in integrations, identity matching and translating payment data into the format bureaus accept. Goel called the infrastructure “the plumbing.” That description is useful. Plumbing creates value precisely when its users can stop thinking about it.
A reporting pathway, rather than a prediction of your score.
Eligible reporting can reach back 24 months. The service reports on-time payments and excludes late or missed rent. Renters can use the app to follow their credit information; Esusu Passport provides a verified payment record they can share. The basic proposition is unusually economical in effort: make an expense already being paid useful elsewhere.
The landlord is also a customer
Esusu’s distribution strategy makes the property owner part of the transaction. Renters want recognition for payments. Owners want stable collections and residents who stay. The property dashboard supplies reporting and resident insights. Esusu sells software and services into that relationship, with additional distribution through banks and fintechs.
Freddie Mac launched its multifamily credit-building initiative with Esusu in November 2021. Its program offers eligible borrowers subsidized or discounted reporting. Amazon’s Housing Equity Fund partnership, announced in March 2025, brings reporting and financial wellness resources to participating affordable housing communities in three U.S. regions.
Prices depend on the door used to enter. Esusu lists its direct Core membership at $120 annually. Zillow’s separate CreditClimb offer costs $20 a year. Some owner-sponsored programs cost residents nothing. A renter should check the program available through their building before buying a separate membership.
Different offers and bundles. Check eligibility and current terms.
Esusu occupies a crowded intersection of housing software and credit building. Freddie Mac also lists Bilt, Entrata, Jetty, Pinata, Sperlonga and Stake as reporting vendors. Esusu’s distinguishing proposition is its combination of property integrations, three-bureau reporting, renter support and embedded distribution. The right comparison includes who pays and what data each service can verify.
A score is a door, not a destination
In December 2025, Esusu reported availability across more than five million rental units encompassing 12 million people. Those are coverage figures. They do not establish that every resident enrolled or received a higher score.
An Urban Institute randomized trial published in June 2025 offers a sharper lens. Working with Esusu, Credit Builders Alliance, TransUnion and affordable housing providers, researchers studied 269 renters. Reporting increased the likelihood of having a VantageScore and reaching a near-prime score.
Esusu advertises an average 53-point increase through the fourth quarter of 2025. Its calculation assigns a starting score of zero to renters who initially had no score. That choice blends acquiring a score with improving an existing one. The figure describes the company’s observed population; it should not become a personal forecast.
The trial did not find a statistically significant average score effect among people who already had scores. Its small sample also limited what it could rule out. Visibility improved; a universal boost was not established. Credit files, other accounts and the scoring model still matter.
The useful question is whether an existing payment can become evidence someone else will accept.
The next bill arrives anyway
Esusu also connects eligible residents to Stable Home Fund rent relief: interest-free, penalty-free, forgivable assistance, subject to approval and availability. Operation HOPE supplies financial coaching. Esusu Pay gives eligible renters access to third-party financing that can split rent payments; lender terms apply. Moving a due date can help a cash-flow mismatch. It cannot repair a persistent income shortfall.
The company raised $50 million at a $1.2 billion valuation in December 2025. Its January 2025 acquisition of Celeri added fraud prevention capabilities. By August 2026, Esusu was highlighting an income calculator for property teams alongside identity and document verification.
The work is carried out by a fully remote team. Esusu’s published values include integrity and rigor, fitting priorities for a business whose output must match the right person to the right payment. An inspiring mission still needs accurate records.
There is a copyable business lesson here: investigate which customer activity already produces value, then discover why that value disappears between institutions. Esusu found a missing record and built a route for it. Renters were already doing the expensive part. The receipt needed somewhere else to go.
Keep following the rent
Explore Esusu, product updates, Zillow CreditClimb and the Series C announcement.
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Watch the Wemimo Abbey’s Fortt Knox interview, browse Esusu’s YouTube videos, or hear Goel’s account of the early days.