SAN DIEGO — Bloom, a blockchain-enabled platform that allows customers to choose what personal data to share with lenders, is piloting its technology with several captives, Founder and Chief Executive Jesse Leimgruber told Auto Finance News at the Auto Finance Innovation Summit last week. Bloom was the winner of the event’s annual “DEMOvation Challenge.”
At the heart of Bloom’s design is BloomID, which allows users to decide what data to include in their profile, determine how it’s used, and verify their identity anywhere in the world. User data is not housed in a centralized database. Rather, consumers seeking credit can decide what information to funnel to individual lenders.
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“Auto lenders capture so much consumer data,” he told AFN. “But technologically speaking, they’re not like banks or traditional fintech lenders. This is not their bread and butter, and they’re looking for solutions to use that data better.”
The startup is in talks with a number of OEMs and their captive finance arms, though Leimgruber declined to disclose details. Bloom was part of BMW Financial Services’ “CollaborationLab” program last year.