When you think of Richmond credit firms, you think of Capital One. But a fast-rising startup out of New York City wants to add another name to the list, and it's banking on the region's deeply rooted financial industry to do so.
Petal, a credit card company focused on people with little or no credit experience, is investing over $300,000 for a new office in Chesterfield County.
Virginia successfully competed with Austin, Salt Lake City and New York City for the project, which the startup says will create more than 80 new jobs over the next three years. It’s hired about 10 employees so far.
VP of Customer Operations Tom Greco, who will lead Petal’s Richmond office, told Inno that the River City was on its shortlist, and perfectly fit its criteria.
“We chose Richmond after looking at a number of locations across the country, including depth and richness of the labor pool, proximity to top-tier universities and proximity to New York, and cost of living.”
Greco said the local talent already has exceeded its high expectations.
“The first wave of applicants – from a volume of applicants perspective – was much higher than we anticipated. It’s coming from the talent pool, deep financial service acumen here in Richmond and lots of smart college students. I’m really excited that those people will be passionate about our mission and will translate that to customers.”
Employees at the Chesterfield office will manage Petal’s customer support, credit operations (applications, collections and fraud) and quality assurance, serving as its customer-facing home base. It is now actively hiring in the Richmond area.
“We have tens of thousands of customers and goal is to get to 100,000 by the end of the year, which is a very aggressive growth timeline,” Greco said. “So we need the operational infrastructure for the company to be in place.”
The first Petal product, the Petal Visa credit card, launched in 2018. It helps measure components of cardholders’ creditworthiness that aren’t typically considered, like how much an individual makes, saves and spends over time, and the monthly bills they pay. That allows it to offer lower interest rates and higher lines of credit without charging fees to consumers without credit scores.
“Our mission is to make credit simple honest and accessible,” Greco said. “We’re finding that – candidly, from a hiring perspective – people seek us out because the mission speaks to generations of folks working at traditional lenders and those just starting professional careers. We seek out people like-minded to that mission, hire them, train them and unleash their greatness.”
To date, Petal has raised more than $80 million in equity and debt financing. The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with Chesterfield County to secure the project, and it will fund part of Petal’s job creation through the Virginia Jobs Investment Program.
