Zest AI Honored in Fast Company's 2021 Next Big Things in Tech Awards

Zest AI, a leader in software for credit underwriting, today announced it has been selected as an honoree in Fast Company's inaugural 2021 Next Big Things in Tech Awards. The awards recognize the companies and technologies that promise to redefine their industries and create a positive impact for consumers, businesses and society at large in the next five years. Specifically, Zest AI was recognized for its Fairness Kit, a set of software applications created in response to demand from banks and credit unions looking to reduce bias from consumer lending. Zest's patented machine learning-based solution automatically optimizes credit underwriting models for both accuracy and fairness, creating real options for the first time for lenders that want to close the racial approval rate gap in consumer credit. "We are honored to have our fair lending efforts recognized by Fast Company for this award," said Mike de Vere, CEO of Zest AI. "Traditionally, lenders have had to make trade-offs between accuracy in risk prediction and minimizing disparate impact. Through our technology, these lenders can make more accurate decisions and say yes to more people who might have struggled to get affordable credit. This award further endorses our mission of making fair and transparent credit available to everyone."