Former Finance

What Former Finance does

Former Finance operates as Volt Finance S.A., a Romania-only consumer fintech incorporated in January 2016 and headquartered in Bucharest, Sector 1. The company serves two distinct customer segments. Its primary audience is individual Romanian adults who use the Volt mobile app to access their FICO credit score (300–850) via Biroul de Credit under a 12-month user mandate, retrieve official income and tax contribution history through an API integration with Romania's ANAF (National Agency for Fiscal Administration), and discover personalized credit offers from a network of partner banks and non-bank lenders (IFN-uri). Application onboarding is handled through Sumsub's video-based KYC and biometric verification, and the app enforces soft-inquiry credit checks so users can monitor their score without penalty. A secondary audience is Romanian SMB retailers and service providers, who enroll in Volt's white-label Carduri de Loialitate platform to issue virtual loyalty cards and offer installment payment options to their customers without building their own financial infrastructure; over 30 merchant partners across retail, dental, beauty, furniture, sports, travel, and events had been onboarded as of the most recent data.

The product is built as a mobile-first, self-serve platform distributed exclusively through the Apple App Store and Google Play, with a companion informational website (volt.ro) and SEO-driven financial education blog. Core technical components include the ANAF government-data integration, Biroul de Credit credit-bureau mandate-based retrieval, Sumsub identity verification, and community/social functionality enabling peer credit-score comparison. AI is deployed in a feature called Fixer, which translates FICO score drivers into plain-language explanations and quantified improvement recommendations (predictive analytics and recommendation engines), and in an anomaly-detection layer for fraud and phishing protection. The app holds a 4.5-star Google Play rating with roughly 5,140 reviews and the platform reports 400,000+ registered users.

Volt monetizes through four stacked streams: (i) affiliate/referral commissions from partner banks and IFNs when users are redirected and successfully obtain credit products via credit.volt.ro, with Ocean Credit as a prominently featured lender; (ii) transaction fees from the B2B white-label BNPL/loyalty platform, with Volt mediating installment payments and loyalty tracking for merchant partners; (iii) a freemium-to-Premium subscription that unlocks monthly automated FICO score refreshes (Starter: first score free; Premium: monthly updates plus periodic automatic refreshes); and (iv) a cashback program where users receive platform-only credits on purchases at participating merchants. GTM is product-led growth combined with a community-led referral loop; SMB merchants self-enroll through an online interest form rather than through a field sales team. The company is privately held, holds no disclosed funding rounds, and operates with a headcount range of 11–50 employees.

Name

Former Finance

Legal name

Volt Finance S.A.

Website

https://volt.ro

Company type

Private

Founded year

2016

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Former Finance (Volt Finance S.A.) is a Romanian fintech operating a mobile app that lets consumers check their FICO credit score via Biroul de Credit, view official ANAF income data, and access a credit-product marketplace, while also offering SMB merchants a white-label loyalty and installment payment platform.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Bucharest

HQ country

Romania

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. Credit Marketplace Referrals & Commissions: Volt promotes credit products from partner financial institutions (banks and IFN-uri/non-bank lenders) and earns referral fees or commissions when users are redirected to and successfully obtain credit products from partner institutions. The platform displays personalized credit offers based on the user's FICO score and credit history, acting as an aggregator/marketplace.
2. White Label Loyalty & BNPL Platform (B2B): Volt provides its White Label Card loyalty and installment infrastructure to merchant partners (retailers, clinics, service providers). Partners enroll to offer customers installment payment options and loyalty rewards, with Volt taking a commission or service fee on transactions processed through the platform.
3. Premium Subscription: Volt offers a Starter plan (first FICO score free) and a Premium plan with monthly free score updates and automatic periodic refreshes. Additional ad-hoc paid score checks are available for users wanting more frequent updates outside their plan cadence.
4. Cashback Program: Volt operates a cashback program where users receive a percentage of their purchase amount back as a discount on future purchases from the same merchant, processed through the Volt platform. The cashback value is platform-only credit and cannot be withdrawn as cash.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels12 records

Core offering

Volt operates a Romanian-language mobile application that gives consumers free access to their FICO credit score and credit history retrieved via Biroul de Credit, aggregates official income and tax data from ANAF, and matches users with personalized loan offers from partner banks and IFN lenders. The platform also offers an AI-based "Fixer" feature that explains credit-score drivers and prescribes improvements, a peer-comparison community, a cashback/rewards layer, and a B2B white-label loyalty card and installment (BNPL) infrastructure for SMB merchants.

Product overview

Volt is a Romanian fintech platform offering a unified mobile application with multiple interconnected financial services. The core product is the Volt App, which provides Romanian consumers access to their FICO credit score (Scor FICO) by querying the Credit Bureau, integrates with ANAF for official income verification, displays personalized credit offers from banking partners through the Marketplace, and enables social comparison through Comunitatea Volt. Additional modules include Fixer (AI-powered financial profile analysis), Carduri de Loialitate (white-label merchant loyalty and installment card solution), Referral Program, and Cashback Service. The platform positions itself as a comprehensive financial companion combining credit monitoring, financial education, and borrowing services.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Fixer: AI-powered financial profile diagnostic tool that explains credit score factors and provides personalized recommendations.
• Delfin+
• Carduri de loialitate

Products and services

• Volt App Mobile application (iOS and Android) serving as the main platform for Romanian consumers to check their FICO credit score, access income data from ANAF, view credit offers from banking partners, participate in the Volt Community, and manage financial health in one centralized location.
• Scor FICO FICO credit score checking service that queries the Romanian Credit Bureau (Biroul de Credit) to display users' credit scores (300–850), payment history, debt levels, and credit standing. First query is free; subsequent queries available through subscription plans.
• Fixer AI-powered financial profile diagnostic tool branded as a sub-brand ("Fixer") that explains credit score factors in plain language, identifies areas for improvement, and provides actionable recommendations to increase credit scores with estimated point gains.
• ANAF Integration (Venituri) Official integration with Romania's National Agency for Fiscal Administration (ANAF) that allows users to view their complete income history, tax contributions, social contributions, employer history, and salary breakdowns directly from the government source.
• Carduri de Loialitate (White Label Loyalty Card & BNPL) B2B white-label virtual loyalty card and installment payment solution enabling Romanian SMB merchants (fashion, furniture, dental, beauty, sports, travel, automotive) to offer loyalty programs and buy-now-pay-later installments, reportedly increasing average transaction values by 45%.
• Marketplace (Credite) Credit product marketplace on credit.volt.ro connecting users with loan offers from partner banks and non-bank financial institutions (IFN-uri), personalized based on the user's FICO score and financial profile, with credit offers displayed in priority order.

Quantifiable outcome

• Users see an average 95-point FICO score increase within 6 months after taking a credit line through Volt, according to a case study presented on the platform.
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers18 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration19 records

AI capability7 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• ANAF (National Agency for Fiscal Administration)coreTechnology or IntegrationVolt has an official API integration with Romania's ANAF (Agenția Națională de Administrare Fiscală), the national tax authority. This integration allows Volt users to securely access their complete official income history, tax contribution breakdowns, employer history, and pension information directly from ANAF's official records — a differentiated data source not available through most competing apps.
• Biroul de Credit S.A. (Romanian Credit Bureau)coreTechnology or IntegrationVolt acts as an authorized intermediary holding a special mandate from users to query the Biroul de Credit credit bureau. Volt retrieves each user's complete credit enrollment history and FICO credit score (300–850), then presents this data within the app along with a breakdown of the 5 FICO score factors. This mandate is valid for 12 months per user.
• Sumsub Tech LTDcoreTechnology or IntegrationSumsub provides Volt's remote identity verification infrastructure, enabling KYC/AML-compliant electronic identification using video selfie verification, biometric facial recognition, and document validation against official Romanian and international databases. This is required for onboarding and account verification within the Volt platform.
• Banking & IFN Partners (credit lenders)coreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorVolt promotes and facilitates access to credit products from a network of Romanian banks and non-bank financial institutions (IFN-uri). The platform matches users with personalized credit offers from these partners based on their FICO score and credit profile, redirecting users to the partner's website or credit flow to complete applications. Volt earns referral/commission fees for each successfully originated credit.
• Ocean CreditcoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorOcean Credit is a prominent non-bank credit lender (IFN) promoted within the Volt marketplace. The Volt platform links directly to credit.volt.ro which serves Ocean Credit products. Fraud awareness materials reference Ocean Credit's official contact details (phone: +40 31 433 81 66, email: [email protected]) as part of anti-phishing guidance, confirming the partnership relationship.

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Others

• Tink: European open-banking platform (Visa-owned) providing account aggregation and connectivity infrastructure. Adjacent enabling technology relevant to Volt's planned expansion into open-banking-driven products.

Regional players

• Zippi: Romanian BNPL / installment provider. Direct regional competitor on Volt's B2B installment-payment and merchant loyalty product line within Romania.
• Kiwi Finance: Romanian broker and consumer-credit intermediary. Comparable regionally as a Romanian consumer credit intermediary that competes for the same lender-referral economics.

Broad incumbents

• LendingTree: Large US credit and financial-product marketplace. Comparable in monetizing lender referrals, but operates as a broad incumbent across many product categories rather than a niche single-country credit-info app.
• NerdWallet: US consumer-finance content and product-referral platform. Comparable referral-driven monetization on financial products, though broader in scope and primarily web-led.

Direct peers

• Credit Karma: US consumer fintech that pioneered the free credit-score-plus-personalized-product-recommendations model, monetizing via lender referrals. Closest direct analogue to Volt's consumer scoring + credit marketplace funnel.
• BankBazaar: India-headquartered credit and financial-product comparison marketplace. Direct peer for Volt's credit-lender referral and matchmaking model in an emerging market.
• MoneyLion: US consumer fintech combining credit monitoring, financial tracking, and credit/product recommendations. Comparable in bundling credit data with product discovery for consumers.
• Borrowell: Canadian free credit-score platform with a credit marketplace and financial product referrals. Comparable freemium consumer credit-information funnel in a single country.
• ClearScore: UK-based free credit-score and marketplace platform, also built on a credit-bureau data integration. Direct peer for Volt's freemium credit-information model outside the US.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UC3ennziGBNqx2jOkcKP7-aA
• Facebookfacebook.com/VoltFinance
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/voltfinance
• Instagraminstagram.com/voltfinance

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Former Finance