Dallas-based Yendo offers credit cards to customers who can’t qualify through traditional avenues by tapping into the equity of their vehicles. The company, which launched in October 2022, has secured $40 million in equity financing and is growing at a rapid pace. But, for CEO Jordan Miller, it hasn’t been a straight path to success.
In 2016, he was a founding employee of Titus Industrial, a logistics and supply-chain concern. By 2019, the company had more than $100 million in annual contracts. During his tenure, Miller helped build a collateral-based lending program to help small business suppliers in Asia overcome working capital constraints. But the pandemic was brutal for Titus, and it eventually broke up and was sold.
Afterward, Miller joined forces with former Titus exec George Utkov and now Yendo CTO Daniel Ashy on a new project. “We started wondering how to create collateral-based lending systems for people who don’t qualify for credit—and ultimately landed on the biggest problem: consumer credit,” Miller says.
The trio wanted to help those underserved by financial institutions—about 100 million people in the U.S.—and co-founded Yendo. With about $8.5 million from early investors, including Mark Cuban, the partners could build and launch the product. Halfway through its initial raise, when the product was just a concept, it sold Mastercard on the idea and struck an exclusive partnership to deliver its offering.
With some guidance through its R&D journey from Aaron Frank—widely credited as the creator of the Apple Card—Yendo launched its product in October of 2022. In 2023, Yendo grew by 700 percent. “Today, we have thousands of cardholders across 23 states, and by the time 2024 ends, we will be in all 50 states,” Miller says.
Yendo provides comparable rates to Chase Sapphire or Amex Platinum to borrowers who typically wouldn’t qualify for those products, Miller says. “We want to ensure people never go to payday or title loans where they take half of one’s paycheck in interest,” he says.
Yendo’s Mastercard costs $40 a year at an APR of 29.88 percent. And more lies ahead. “We are looking at bank accounts, savings accounts, sending money internationally—the full financial suite,” Miller says. “We want to be the financial service provider for those the financial system has ignored.”
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