written like an advertisement . please help improve it by removing promotional content and inappropriate external links and by adding encyclopedic content written from a neutral point of view . february 2015 learn how and when to remove this template message earnest type private founded september 2013 headquarters san francisco california united states founder s louis beryl ben hutchinson website www.earnest.com available in english launched march 2014 current status active earnest is a technology enabled lender headquartered in san francisco that offers personal loans student loan refinancing and loans for coding academies . 1 the company uses software and algorithms to evaluate a person s full education employment and financial profile looking beyond a traditional credit score also known as a fico score in order to obtain a complete financial profile of each applicant . earnest uses an online dashboard that gives clients tools to control and customize their loan payments by payment amount and time . the company does not charge origination or prepayment fees . earnest s mission is to offer low cost credit to qualified individuals at lower rates than traditional banks and build a new bank for the next generation . 2 leadership company history edit the company was co founded by ceo louis beryl a former partner at silicon valley vc firm andreessen horowitz and by coo benjamin hutchinson who was most recently head of commercial finance at bbc . 3 the company first launched a personal loan product in boston massachusetts in march 2014 due to the high concentration of young professionals in the area . 4 since launch the company now lends in alaska arkansas arizona california colorado connecticut florida georgia hawaii illinois indiana kansas maine maryland massachusetts michigan minnesota missouri nebraska new hampshire new jersey new mexico new york north carolina ohio oklahoma oregon pennsylvania tennessee texas utah virginia washington washington d.c. west virginia wisconsin and wyoming . 5 funding edit earnest received 15m in seed funding from several vc firms including andreessen horowitz first round capital maveron and atlas venture in 2014 . 6 this funding was a combination of equity and lending capital . on january 27 2015 earnest announced series a equity funding of 17m led by maveron as well as the launch of student loan refinancing starting at 3.5 % fixed apr and 1.90 % variable apr as well as a rebranding of the site . 7 on november 17 2015 earnest announced its 75m in funding round led by battery ventures plus 200m in loan capital from new york life . 8 earnest has been covered by the wall street journal 9 entrepreneur magazine 10 inc. magazine 11 and the boston globe . 12 references edit earnest crunchbase . www.crunchbase.com . retrieved 2015 12 15 . lohr steve 2015 01 18 . banking start ups adopt new tools for lending . the new york times . issn 0362 4331 . retrieved 2015 12 15 . sign up linkedin . www.linkedin.com . retrieved 2015 12 15 . startup lender earnest opens boston office with new approach the boston globe . bostonglobe.com . retrieved 2015 12 15 . earnest . www.meetearnest.com . retrieved 2015 12 15 . earnest crunchbase . www.crunchbase.com . retrieved 2015 12 15 . a data science lender takes on student debt . bits blog . retrieved 2015 12 15 . earnest raises 275m to help millennials manage their financial futures . venturebeat . retrieved 2015 11 17 . lending startup earnest raises 15 million to replace fico 20 . beryl louis 2014 07 01 . what being a vc taught me about entrepreneurship . entrepreneur . cohan peter 2014 07 17 . this startup offers cheap loans for relocating employees . inc. magazine . borchers callum 2014 03 24 . lender earnest opens in boston with new approach . the boston globe . retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title earnest company & oldid 743698435 categories companies based in san franciscocompanies established in 2013privately held companies in the united statescreditfinancial services companies based in californiahidden categories articles with a promotional tone from february 2015all articles with a promotional tone navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 10 october 2016 at 19 38 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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