Peter Thiel Leads $20M Round for ZestFinance’s Big-Data Underwriting

ZestFinance, which analyzes data to help get loans to people with bad credit, has raised $20 million in Series C funding led by Peter Thiel. The 65-person, Los Angeles-based company, which previously made its own loans but now works with partners, said it is lowering default rates and cutting the cost of credit by crunching data on borrowers.