Cheese
Cheese is a Pasadena, California-based consumer fintech founded in 2019 that provides automated, simple solutions to help individuals build credit and grow savings through accessible digital tools.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2019
- HeadquartersPasadena, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2C
- OfferingSoftware
What Cheese does
Cheese is a Pasadena, California-based consumer fintech company founded in 2019 that provides automated solutions designed to help individuals build credit and grow savings. The company targets everyday consumers seeking low-effort, accessible financial tools, operating with a lean team of 11-50 employees. The product surface spans credit-building automation and savings accumulation, suggesting a mobile-first or app-based delivery model, though no explicit app, pricing, or product feature disclosures are present in the available data.
The company has raised capital across multiple funding rounds since inception, including a disclosed $3.6 million round in March 2020 led by Amplify.LA and iFly.vc, with participation from Idealab, Wedbush Ventures, Operate, and Hi2 Venture Fund. A subsequent April 2020 round added Elysium Venture Capital, and the most recent disclosed activity in February 2023 included Gold House and Goodwater Capital. Total disclosed capital is modest, consistent with seed- to early-stage positioning, and no subsequent priced growth round is documented in the available data.
Cheese is led by co-founders Ken Lian (CEO), Zhen Wang (CFO), and Qingyi Li (Product Lead), supported by a Chief Compliance Officer (Joyce Mehlman), a Technical Lead (Tom Zeng), a Lead Software Engineer (Dizhen Lyu), a customer success lead (Kristen DeFeo), and a business development manager (Tracy Li). The presence of formal compliance leadership is consistent with operating in a regulated consumer financial services category.
Cheese firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Cheese
- Website
- https://earncheese.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2019
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Cheese is a Pasadena, California-based consumer fintech founded in 2019 that provides automated, simple solutions to help individuals build credit and grow savings through accessible digital tools.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Cheese industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Consumer Credit Building
- NAICS
- Activities Related to Credit Intermediation (5223), Credit Bureaus (56145)
- SIC
- Services-Consumer Credit Reporting, Collection Agencies (7320), Personal Credit Institutions (6141)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Credit Education, Monitoring & Consumer Credit Management Tools (FSAKAKAJ)
Keywords
Where Cheese is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Pasadena
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Markets served
Cheese business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2C
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure
Distribution channels1 record
Marketing channels1 record
Cheese product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Cheese provides simple and automated solutions to help people build credit and grow savings. The offering is delivered through a consumer-facing software platform that streamlines credit-building actions and savings accumulation for individual users.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Cheese Credit Building Automated solution that helps individual consumers build credit through streamlined, hands-off workflows.
- Cheese Savings Growth Automated solution that helps individual consumers grow savings through simplified, automated deposit and growth workflows.
Quantifiable outcome
- 10,000 attendees expected at the 2026 IDDBA show
- +1 more outcomes
Companies that use Cheese
Customer profileSegments2 records
Ideal customer profiles1 record
Cheese technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Cheese partnerships and signals
Strategic signalRecent moves5 records
Expansion highlights3 records
Cheese competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Kikoff: Kikoff provides a low-cost credit-building revolving account and credit score tracking aimed at consumers with no or thin credit, a direct comparable to Cheese's credit-building product.
- Credit Karma: Credit Karma offers free credit monitoring, credit-building tools and personalized financial product recommendations to U.S. consumers, directly overlapping with Cheese's credit-building and savings value proposition.
- Self Financial: Self (formerly Self Lender) helps consumers build credit through small installment credit-builder loans and a secured card, addressing the same credit-invisible and thin-file segments targeted by Cheese.
- MoneyLion: MoneyLion combines credit-building, banking, lending and investing in a single mobile app aimed at mass-market and underbanked consumers, directly comparable to Cheese's combined credit and savings offering.
- Grow Credit: Grow Credit uses a secured Mastercard to help users build credit history through everyday subscription payments, targeting the same underserved, credit-building-focused consumer as Cheese.
Broad incumbents
- Experian: Experian is one of the three major U.S. credit bureaus and offers consumer credit monitoring, Boost and identity products; it competes broadly with Cheese in the credit-improvement category.
- Chime: Chime is a large neobank offering credit-builder cards, savings accounts and early wage access; it overlaps with Cheese on credit-building and savings for everyday U.S. consumers.
- Current: Current is a U.S. neobank offering credit-building features alongside savings and early payday, overlapping with Cheese's combined credit and savings positioning.
- Albert: Albert is a consumer fintech that bundles savings, budgeting and credit features under a subscription, comparable to Cheese on the savings and credit-building use cases.
Emerging players
- Petal: Petal issues credit cards using cash-flow underwriting aimed at consumers with limited credit history, addressing the same thin-file market that Cheese targets with credit-building tools.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat3 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights5 records
Customer concentration
Cheese social profiles
Digital presenceCheese financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Cheese leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles8 records
Cheese funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds4 records
Investors9 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Cheese M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Cheese
What does Cheese do?
Cheese provides simple and automated solutions to help people build credit and grow savings. The offering is delivered through a consumer-facing software platform that streamlines credit-building actions and savings accumulation for individual users.
Is Cheese a public or private company?
Cheese is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Cheese founded?
Cheese was founded in 2019. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Cheese based?
Cheese is headquartered in Pasadena, United States, in the North America region.
Who are Cheese's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Kikoff, Credit Karma, Self Financial, MoneyLion and Grow Credit. Broad incumbents are Experian, Chime, Current and Albert. Petal is listed as an emerging player.
Does Cheese have an API?
No public API is recorded for Cheese.
What industry is Cheese in?
Cheese's product category is Consumer Credit Building. Its primary akta.pro industry code is FSAKAKAJ, Credit Education, Monitoring & Consumer Credit Management Tools. Its NAICS code is 5223 and its SIC code is 7320.