Cignifi

01 / WHAT IT BUILT

What the company did

Cignifi was a Cambridge, Massachusetts big-data startup founded in 2010 by CEO Jonathan Hakim. It developed a way for financial institutions to assess credit risk in emerging markets using mobile-phone behavioral data: call length, time of day, location of calls, whether users topped up prepaid SIMs regularly — proxies for lifestyle stability that could be turned into credit and marketing scores for people with no formal credit history. As little as four weeks of calling history was enough to score a user. Backed by Omidyar Network, American Express Ventures and LeapFrog Investments, and partnered with AT&T, Telefónica, Globe Telecom, Santander and Equifax, it served more than 100 million people across 13 countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia, and raised about $13.88 million. No shutdown, bankruptcy or acquisition was found in any source; company databases continue to carry its profile.

03 / EVENT HISTORY

Events in the structured record

1. 2010
   Founded

   Founded in Cambridge, MA by Jonathan Hakim to score credit risk from mobile-phone behavioral data for unbanked consumers in emerging markets.

2. 2014
   Series A

   Closed a $1.5 million Series A led by Omidyar Network (Pierre Omidyar's investment firm); partnered with Equifax on Predictor Inclusion Scores, first rolling out in Chile.

3. 2015
   Series B

   Raised a Series B led by Omidyar Network with American Express Ventures and other existing investors participating.

4. 2019
   $4.3M and LeapFrog

   Closed an additional $4.3 million round with LeapFrog Investments and Omidyar Network participating; served more than 100 million people in 13 countries. No failure found in any source after this point — the record may be misclassified.