Zirtue brings structure and accountability to friends-and-family lending

Every year, Americans borrow $184 billion from friends and family. Too often, those loans are never formalized, which can result in painful misunderstandings and strained relationships.

Zirtue is an app that takes the guesswork and awkwardness out of repaying a friend or family member by digitizing those loans on a simple online platform. Over the last year, their number of users has grown by 60% month-over-month.

“Many of our borrowers don’t have access to more traditional forms of credit,” said Javier Martinez, Head of Growth Marketing at Zirtue. “They may be deep in credit card debt; they may not have a credit score at all. Zirtue is valuable to them because it allows them to borrow with dignity from people they know and trust.”

But there was a problem. Many of Zirtue’s users keep their money at smaller banks and credit unions—accounts that can be difficult to access when it’s time to transfer money. In fact, 83% of Zirtue’s transactions involve one of these smaller banks.

That’s why Zirtue turned to Plaid. Plaid now connects to all 11,642 American banks and credit unions, so nearly every potential borrower and lender can access Zirtue’s platform. As a result, Zirtue’s overall conversion rate has increased by 10%.