FairPlay, a Los Angeles, CA-based provider of a “Fairness-as-a-Service” solution for algorithmic decision-making, raised $10M in Series A funding.
The round was led by Nyca Partners, with participation from Cross River Digital Ventures, Third Prime, Fin Capital, TTV, Nevcaut Ventures, Financial Venture Studio and Jonathan Weiner.
The company intends to use the funds to grow its engineering and data science teams and expand its products into the insurance, marketing and fraud industries.
Launched in 2020 by CEO Kareem Saleh, FairPlay provides algorithmic fairness solutions that empower lenders to identify and mitigate bias in their credit models, increasing profitability and financial inclusion. The company’s AI fairness techniques reduce algorithmic bias for people of color, women and other historically disadvantaged groups to enhance fairness in financial services and other industries.
FairPlay offers two APIs. The first API provides Fairness Analysis, analyzing a lending model’s inputs, outputs and outcomes to identify if disparities exist and for which historically disadvantaged groups. The second API, Second Look, leverages Fairness Aware AI technologies to re-underwrite declined loan applications for borrowers from protected groups. The technology assesses whether applicants declined by the primary algorithm resemble ‘good’ borrowers in ways that weren’t previously considered. The result is that more applicants from underserved groups are responsibly approved for loans, reducing bias and increasing lenders’ profitability.
Customers include Figure Technologies, Happy Money and Octane.
FairPlay also announced that Manny Alvarez, the former Commissioner of the California Department of Financial Protection and David Silberman, the former Acting Deputy Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, have joined the company as advisors along with fintech executive Kim Gerhardt.
