Concerto today announced that it has raised $21.2 million in a funding round led by Matrix Partners with participation from PayPal Ventures and GoldenTree Asset Management. To address some of the challenges around credit card co-branding, Dan Duncan, the cofounder of credit card issuers Mercury Financial, launched Concerto, a startup that develops credit card programs for brands using “advanced data analytics.” While acknowledging that credit card issuing and loyalty programs are certainly not new, Duncan claims that Concerto’s approach is unique in that it applies technologies including machine learning to measure and predict risk. Questions typically also crop up around whether the programs should be jointly managed (e.g., by the issuer and brand) and how profit sharing arrangements are to be structured. If chargeoffs (i.e., debt unlikely to be collected) rise, the programs - particularly if operating on tight margins - can become financially strained.

But building these programs can be challenging from a brand perspective. In a separate survey (conducted by Finder), close to a third of respondents said that they’ve used a credit card solely to rack up rewards points. According to a GigaPoints/Ipsos poll, over half of Americans say that earning points makes them want to use their credit card more often. Concerto snags $21.2M to bring co-branded credit cards to more brandsĬo-branded rewards programs like Amex’s longrunning Delta partnership are a major factor in consumers’ credit card decisions.

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