Jason Rosen has seen the future of credit, and it’s not in a FICO score. It’s in the daily churn of a checking account. The founder, who previously built cash-flow underwriting pioneer Petal, is now selling that vision to the rest of the lending industry. His vehicle is Prism Data, a New York-based infrastructure company that translates messy bank-transaction data into a clean, predictive score for risk departments [Finextra, May 2023].
Since spinning out of Petal in 2023, Prism has secured $25 million in total funding. Its principal product, CashScore, is an API-based analytics engine that promises to help lenders approve more borrowers while reducing losses, particularly for those with limited or no traditional credit history [Prism Data, retrieved]. The bet is that raw income and expense data is a more reliable and inclusive signal than a three-digit bureau score. For Rosen, it’s a second act with a broader canvas.
The Petal-Proven Wedge
Prism’s wedge is a product of its origin story. The company was developed internally at Petal as the data engine powering its own card-issuing business, which used bank-account data to underwrite customers overlooked by traditional models [Axios, May 2023]. The logic was simple: if the model worked for Petal, it could be productized for any lender. The resulting CashScore analyzes consumer-permissioned transaction data, categorizing thousands of data points to generate income profiles and a suite of risk scores on a 1-to-999 scale [Cash Flow Data Just Moved Up the Funnel, retrieved 2026].
The company claims its scores can identify credit performance equivalent to prime scores for customers with no existing credit history, and improve performance by up to 25% for others [CashScore | Prism Data, retrieved 2026]. It’s a bold claim, but one grounded in the operational grind of building a lender from scratch. The pitch to enterprise clients is that they get the analytics, not just the raw data.
Building the Infrastructure Layer
Prism is not a data aggregator. It sits a layer above, compatible with leading providers like Plaid and standard file formats [Prism Data, retrieved]. This allows a lender to pull data through their preferred pipeline, send the anonymized transaction history to Prism’s API, and receive structured insights and scores in return. The product is designed to plug into existing decision engines and core banking systems, a necessity for selling to regulated institutions [Built In NYC, October 2023].
The early go-to-market strategy focused on proving the model. By October 2023, the company reported it had signed more than 20 clients and partners and completed over two dozen successful pilots [Finextra, October 2023]. Partnerships with underwriting platforms like Stratyfy and Provenir help embed CashScore deeper into lender workflows [Yahoo Finance, retrieved 2026]. The company has also expanded into Canada, partnering with Neo Financial [Prism Data, retrieved].
The Funding and the Footprint
Investor conviction has grown with the traction. A $5 million seed round in late 2023 was led by Obvious Ventures, with participation from the Citi Impact Fund and Core Innovation Capital [Finextra, October 2023]. That was followed by a $20 million Series A in October 2026, led by Story Ventures with follow-on from Obvious and new checks from FINTOP and Core VC [Finextra, October 2026]. The capital is earmarked for scaling the team, which numbers between 11 and 50 people according to a 2026 snapshot [LeadIQ, retrieved 2026].
2023 Seed | 5 | M USD
2026 Series A | 20 | M USD
The leadership team carries a blend of fintech startup and regulated finance experience. Rosen, the founder and CEO, advised the CFPB on open-banking policy [Finextra, May 2023]. President Erin Allard, who was appointed to lead the spinout, brought executive experience from Green Dot and The Bancorp [Axios, May 2023]. Senior sales executive Ben Donahue previously led sales at cross-border credit platform Nova Credit [Finextra, May 2023].
| Role | Name | Key Prior Experience |
|---|---|---|
| Founder & CEO | Jason Rosen | Founder of Petal, CFPB advisor |
| President | Erin Allard | Exec roles at Green Dot, The Bancorp |
| Senior Sales Executive | Ben Donahue | Sales leadership at Nova Credit |
The Regulatory and Competitive Landscape
No market shift of this scale is without friction. The adoption of cash-flow underwriting faces several headwinds that Prism must navigate.
- Regulatory interpretation. While consumer-permissioned data is central to open banking, its use in credit decisions sits in a gray area of fair lending laws. Regulators are still defining the guardrails for using non-traditional data, creating a potential compliance overhead for lenders [Finextra, May 2023].
- Data quality variance. Prism’s model is only as good as the transaction data fed into it. Inconsistent data from smaller banks or credit unions, or accounts with minimal activity, could weaken score accuracy and lender confidence.
- Incumbent inertia. The three-digit FICO score is deeply embedded in legacy underwriting systems and risk models. Displacing it requires not just a better signal, but a costly and slow process of re-engineering decisioning workflows inside large, conservative institutions.
Prism’s answer to these risks is embedded in its design: compatibility with existing systems and a focus on being a supplemental tool. The company emphasizes that CashScore can be used alongside traditional bureau scores, allowing for a phased adoption [Stratyfy Partners with Prism Data, retrieved 2026]. Its partnership strategy is also a hedge, baking its analytics into the platforms lenders already use.
The Next Twelve Months
The $20 million Series A provides a multi-year runway. The immediate priorities are clear: convert more pilot programs into enterprise contracts, deepen integrations with core banking providers, and continue the international push that began in Canada. The eight open roles listed on its careers page, spanning data science, engineering, and partnerships, signal a build-out phase [Prism Data, retrieved].
The long-term question is one of category creation. Is Prism selling a point solution, or is it building the foundational score for a post-bureau lending world? The backing from Citi’s impact fund and fintech-focused firms like Obvious and Story Ventures suggests investors believe it’s the latter. For lenders staring down thin margins and demands for more inclusive practices, the promise of a 25% performance lift is a powerful argument to listen [CashScore | Prism Data, retrieved 2026]. The bet rests on whether the industry’s risk departments move as fast as the checkbooks of venture investors.
Sources
- [Finextra, May 2023] Open banking startup Prism Data raises $5m | https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/43173/open-banking-startup-prism-data-raises-5m
- [Prism Data, retrieved] Prism Data: Expand approvals and lower losses with cash flow underwriting | https://www.prismdata.com/
- [Axios, May 2023] Petal $35M spinout Prism Data | https://www.axios.com/pro/fintech-deals/2023/05/10/petal-35m-spinout-prism-data
- [Cash Flow Data Just Moved Up the Funnel, retrieved 2026] Cash Flow Data Just Moved Up the Funnel | https://www.prismdata.com/cashscore/
- [CashScore | Prism Data, retrieved 2026] CashScore | Prism Data | https://www.prismdata.com/cashscore/
- [Built In NYC, October 2023] Built In NYC profile | https://www.builtinnyc.com/company/prism-data
- [Finextra, October 2023] Open banking startup Prism Data raises $5m | https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/43173/open-banking-startup-prism-data-raises-5m
- [Yahoo Finance, retrieved 2026] Stratyfy Partners with Prism Data to Help Lenders Make Better Decisions with Cash Flow Data | https://finance.yahoo.com/news/stratyfy-partners-prism-data-help-100000368.html
- [Finextra, October 2026] Prism Data raises 20M | https://www.finextra.com/pressarticle/111338/prism-data-raises-20m
- [LeadIQ, retrieved 2026] LeadIQ profile | https://leadiq.com/company/prism-data
- [Stratyfy Partners with Prism Data, retrieved 2026] Stratyfy Partners with Prism Data to Help Lenders Make Better Decisions with Cash Flow Data | https://www.prismdata.com/