Philadelphia Business Journal Highlights Powerlytics

Bucks County fintech raises $5.9M, plans to double headcount

A Bucks County company that carries data on some 200 million Americans has raised $5.9 million with plans to double its headcount.

Founded in 2011, Doylestown-based Powerlytics boasts two large-scale proprietary databases based on tax data that can predict marketing and risk outcomes for clients in the financial services industry. The company’s second Series B round was led by Des Moines, Iowa-based Curql, a collection of credit unions investing in fintech. New York’s Tribeca Early Stage Partners, exiting investor Brewer Lane Ventures and angel investors also participated in the round.

As clients, the company counts three of the 10 largest banks as well as a number of insurance companies. Synchrony Financial, the largest private label credit card bank, is also a client. With the new funding, the company will move into the credit union space, according to founder and CEO Kevin Sheetz, who declined to disclose the names of the banks.

One of Powerlytics’ anonymized databases takes into account all of an individual’s income streams, real estate taxes, mortgage expenses and other tax data that can give an accurate financial picture of a person. It can help banks when granting loans, or financial services companies market their products to target the right demographic.

Its other database compiles financial statements on all for-profit businesses in the U.S. that can gauge net income and revenue to also help financial services companies fit their business-to-business products to an intended market.

Powerlytics grew revenue 45% from 2022 to 2023, Sheetz said, adding the company is tracking to hit a similar growth rate this year. He declined to disclose specific revenue figures. Powerlytics now has close to $16 million in funding, last raising a $4 million Series B in 2020.

At the time of its last raise, headcount was nearly 20, about where it is today. Sheetz plans to grow that number significantly.

Powerlytics expects to double its headcount in the next 12 to 18 months, adding a mix of positions in marketing and data science, both in Doylestown and remote.

Though Powerlytics boasts some big-name clients, Sheetz said part of the funding will also go toward building out a “bite-sized” data platform that will be more useful for some of the smaller players in the financial services space like financial planners, community banks and credit unions. It would come at a lesser price and give up-to-date data on smaller geography like a county or metro area, rather then the entire U.S. It could help financial planners identify potential customers in a given income range, or community banks grow deposits by targeting specific income brackets or deposit patterns.

Like so many other tech companies, Powerlytics is using its extensive data to lean into artificial intelligence and machine learning. One tool in partnership with Akuvo uses Powerlytics data to predict how likely individuals are to be delinquent on a payment, allowing a collections companies to focus their effort on that segment of their customers. Another is a partnership with Trellance on a tool that can tell which members are likely to be highly engaged in buying products and services, allowing financial companies to target customers who are likely to be more profitable.

“We need more resources just to keep up with demand for the product,” Sheetz said about the funding, adding “the things that we’re doing with machine learning and AI, that’s a huge opportunity for us because the data, it’s fairly unique, and it’s very predictive of both risk and marketing outcomes.”

By Ryan Mulligan – Reporter, Philadelphia Business Journal Aug 27, 2024

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