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A startup called SelfScore has raised $7.1 million in new venture funding to help bring much-needed financial services to international students at U.S. colleges and universities.
SelfScore co-founder and CEO Kalpesh Kapadia grew up in India, but moved to the U.S. for graduate school in 1995. That’s when he first noticed the challenges of assimilating into what he says is the credit-based economy of the U.S., even for students with the best grades and highest degree of responsibility.
“The system has been designed around things like credit scores from FICO which came into existence before the smartphone, the internet and social media. And if you move here of course you will not have a ready made credit history.”
According to SelfScore’s market analysis, the 1.1 million international students in the U.S. are responsible for some $31 billion in annual spending, including tuition of course.
SelfScore advertises as the International Student’s MasterCard, and largely that’s what it is today.