内容来源：https://www.geekwire.com/2026/kredosai-raises-7m-led-by-bmws-venture-arm-using-ai-to-help-companies-collect-late-payments/

内容总结：

西雅图AI初创公司KredosAI获700万美元融资，宝马旗下风投领投

总部位于华盛顿州伊瑟阔的初创公司KredosAI近日完成700万美元的新一轮融资，本轮由宝马集团旗下独立风投机构BMW i Ventures领投。该公司成立于2021年，由前T-Mobile高管巴拉吉·斯里达兰和戴夫·汤姆斯共同创立，专注于利用人工智能和行为科学帮助企业追讨逾期消费者欠款。

KredosAI的技术主要应用于账单逾期后、账户被移交催收或核销前的“中间地带”。其系统能够根据客户的账户历史记录，个性化定制每一条催款信息的措辞、发送时机和渠道。斯里达兰表示，大多数逾期付款的消费者并非恶意拖欠，而是因为忘记还款日期、短期资金紧张或对服务存在不满。“绝大多数逾期用户其实是想还款的，真正欺诈的只是极少数。”

本轮融资为A轮，新投资者Motley Fool Ventures和Walter Ventures，以及现有投资者Okapi Venture Capital、StartFast Ventures、SaaS Ventures和Stout Street Capital均参与了投资。截至目前，公司累计融资总额略超过1000万美元。

斯里达兰指出，BMW i Ventures的加入对公司意义重大，因为KredosAI正深入汽车贷款领域。目前，次级汽车贷款的逾期率已升至20世纪90年代以来的最高水平。汽车贷款机构面临与电信公司类似的困境——需要在催收成本和维护客户关系之间取得平衡。而宝马在汽车行业的深厚根基，使其风投成为理想的合作伙伴。

KredosAI主要服务大型企业，其中包括多家财富50强公司，但多数客户未公开披露。公司起源于电信行业，两位创始人曾在T-Mobile共事。斯里达兰在T-Mobile工作了八年，先后负责企业战略和物联网业务，此前还曾在麦肯锡任职；汤姆斯则在电信和金融服务公司长期从事信贷和催收工作。

他们发现，T-Mobile每月要处理数百万个逾期账户，这促使他们思考如何更好地与逾期客户沟通。KredosAI的软件通过分析客户的账户特征（如历史逾期频率、平均余额、客户时长等），并避开年龄等敏感信号，来决定发送何种催收信息。沟通渠道包括短信、电子邮件、RCS（富媒体通信服务）以及公司过去一年新增的AI语音代理。

据介绍，相比传统催收方式，该公司的解决方案能帮助客户将核销率降低11.5%，同时将客户生命周期价值提升13.6%。过去两年间，其平台已处理超过2亿次客户互动，营收增长了六倍以上。

KredosAI还是分析公司FICO的合作伙伴，并将其技术集成至FICO平台——该平台被银行等大型企业用于信贷决策和催收管理。

在竞争方面，KredosAI面临多家催收软件公司的挑战，包括规模更大的卡尔加里公司Symend（同样利用行为科学与逾期客户互动），以及在线债务催收公司和销售传统催收软件的企业。

目前公司约有25名员工，其中8人在西雅图地区。斯里达兰表示，这笔资金将用于销售和市场营销、围绕代理型AI和语音代理的产品开发，以及未来的国际扩张。他预计未来一年员工人数将翻倍至50人以上。“这笔资金让我们能够比以往更积极地开拓市场。”

中文翻译：

KredosAI是一家位于西雅图地区的初创公司，利用人工智能和行为科学帮助企业追讨消费者逾期欠款。该公司从宝马集团旗下的独立风投机构BMW i Ventures领投的一轮新融资中获得了700万美元。

这家公司由前T-Mobile高管巴拉吉·斯里达兰和戴夫·汤姆斯于2021年创立，总部位于华盛顿州伊瑟阔。其业务聚焦于账单逾期后、但账户尚未移交给催收机构或进行坏账核销之前的阶段。其技术能够根据客户的账户历史记录，为每条逾期提醒定制措辞、发送时机和渠道。

斯里达兰表示，其核心理念是，大多数人逾期并非出于恶意，而是因为一些更平常的原因，比如忘了还款日期、短期资金短缺，或者可能对服务有些不满。

“绝大多数逾期未付款的消费者其实是想付钱的，”他说，“其中只有很小一部分是欺诈者，但大多数人都是愿意付款的。”

新投资者Motley Fool Ventures和Walter Ventures也加入了本轮A轮融资，原有投资者Okapi Venture Capital、StartFast Ventures、SaaS Ventures和Stout Street Capital也参与了跟投。迄今为止，该公司的总融资额略超1000万美元。

斯里达兰表示，与宝马的关联是通过一位现有投资者引荐的。他补充说，随着KredosAI深入汽车贷款领域，拥有汽车制造商的风投机构作为后盾非常重要。

次级汽车贷款的逾期率已攀升至20世纪90年代以来的最高水平。斯里达兰表示，贷款机构衡量这个问题的方式与电信公司类似——即在追回欠款的成本与留住客户的价值之间取得平衡。这种共通性，加上宝马在汽车行业的布局，使得其风投机构成为了一个合乎逻辑的选择。

KredosAI与多家大型企业合作，其中包括一些财富50强公司，不过它并未公开透露大部分客户的名字。该公司起步于电信行业，这与其根基有关：斯里达兰和汤姆斯是在位于贝尔维尤的T-Mobile公司相识的。斯里达兰在那里工作了八年，起初负责企业战略，后来负责该运营商的物联网部门，此前他曾在麦肯锡工作过一段时间。汤姆斯职业生涯的大部分时间都在电信和金融服务公司从事信贷和催收工作。

看到T-Mobile每月都要处理数百万个逾期账户，他们开始思考是否有更好的方式与那些未能按时还款的客户进行沟通。

为了决定发送什么内容，该软件会评估客户的账户特征（过去逾期的频率、平均余额、成为客户的时间长短），同时避免使用年龄等敏感信号。它通过短信、电子邮件以及最近新增的RCS渠道与客户取得联系，此外还有该公司在过去一年里开始加入的AI语音助手。

该公司表示，这种方法带来了显著改善：据其报告，与传统的催收方式相比，其客户的坏账核销率降低了11.5%，而客户生命周期价值则提升了13.6%。该公司称，其平台在过去两年里处理了超过2亿次客户互动，同期收入增长了六倍以上。

KredosAI还是FICO（以FICO信用评分最为人所知的分析公司）的合作伙伴，并将其技术集成到FICO平台中，银行和其他大型公司使用该平台进行信贷决策和催收工作。

该公司与一系列催收软件企业竞争，其中包括规模更大、更成熟的Symend。这家总部位于卡尔加里的公司也利用行为科学与逾期付款的客户进行互动。该领域还包括在线债务催收商以及销售老式催收软件的公司。

该公司约有25名员工，其中大约8人在西雅图地区。

斯里达兰表示，这笔资金将用于销售和营销、围绕自主式AI和语音助手进一步开发产品，并最终用于国际扩张。他预计明年员工人数将大致翻一番，达到50人或更多。

他补充说，额外的资金“为我们提供了一些动力，让我们能够以比过去更积极的方式进入市场。”

英文来源：

KredosAI, a Seattle-area startup that uses AI and behavioral science to help companies chase down late consumer payments, raised $7 million in a new funding round led by BMW i Ventures, the independent venture capital arm of automaker BMW Group.
The company, founded in 2021 by former T-Mobile executives Balaji Sridharan and Dave Thoms, is based in Issaquah, Wash. It focuses on the period after a bill is overdue but before the account gets sent to collections or written off. Its technology is able to tailor the wording, timing and channel of each overdue message based on a customer’s account history.
The premise, Sridharan said, is that most people aren’t being nefarious in their tardiness but are dealing with something more mundane, such as a forgotten due date, a short-term cash crunch, or possibly some kind of frustration with the service.
“The majority of consumers who go late on payment actually want to pay,” he said. “There’s a very small subset of people that are fraudsters, but most of them want to pay.”
New investors Motley Fool Ventures and Walter Ventures joined existing backers Okapi Venture Capital, StartFast Ventures, SaaS Ventures and Stout Street Capital in the Series A round. Total funding to date for the company is a little over $10 million.
The BMW connection came through an introduction from an existing investor, Sridharan said. Having an automaker’s venture arm behind it matters, he added, as KredosAI moves deeper into auto lending.
Subprime auto-loan delinquencies have climbed to their highest levels since the 1990s. Lenders, Sridharan said, weigh the problem much the way telecoms do — balancing the cost of recovering a payment against the value of keeping the customer. That overlap, along with BMW’s footprint in the car business, made its venture arm a logical fit.
KredosAI works with large enterprises, including some in the Fortune 50, though it doesn’t name most of them publicly. It got its start in telecom, which speaks to its roots: Sridharan and Thoms met at Bellevue-based T-Mobile. Sridharan spent eight years there, first running corporate strategy and later the carrier’s IoT unit, following an earlier stint at McKinsey. Thoms has spent much of his career in credit and collections at telecom and financial-services firms.
Watching T-Mobile wrestle with millions of past-due accounts each month, they came to think there was a better way to handle the conversation with a customer who’d fallen behind.
To decide what to send, the software weighs a customer’s account characteristics (how often they’ve been late before, their average balance, how long they’ve been a customer) while steering clear of off-limits signals like age. It reaches people through text, email and most recently RCS, along with AI voice agents the company began adding over the past year.
The company says the approach delivers notable improvement: across its customers, it reports cutting write-offs by 11.5% and lifting customer lifetime value by 13.6% compared with conventional collections. It says its platform has handled more than 200 million customer interactions over the past two years, with revenue growing more than sixfold in that span.
KredosAI is also a partner of FICO — the analytics firm best known for the FICO credit score — and integrates its technology into the FICO Platform, the software banks and other large companies use for credit decisions and collections.
The company competes with a range of collections-software players, including larger, more established Symend, a Calgary-based company that also uses behavioral science to interact with late-paying customers. The field also includes online debt collectors and companies selling older collections software.
The company has about 25 employees, roughly eight of them in the Seattle area.
Sridharan said the funding will go toward sales and marketing, further product development around agentic AI and voice agents, and eventually international expansion. He expects to roughly double headcount over the next year, to 50 people or more.
The additional funding, he said, “gives us a bit of fuel to go to market a little more aggressively than we have in the past.”