Avant

In 2025, we made Avant’s mobile experience simpler, faster, and easier to use, and that work is paying off in measurable ways for our customers: 📱 Adoption of the updated Avant app by new customers is nearly double the rate of adoption under our previous app. ⭐ Customers rate the Avant app 4.8 on both iOS and Android. ⚡ Customers are completing key self-service tasks in about half the time compared to agent-assisted workflows. 📈 Tens of thousands of customer account changes are happening in the app each month, creating more convenience for customers and faster resolutions overall. When you build with the customer in mind, thoughtful improvements matter more than flashy features. That’s how our teams approach product development at Avant: by focusing on what matters most to customers and making it better over time.

We hosted ProductTank Chicago at our office last week to a packed room of 120 product people. Dr. Nesrine Changuel presented research showing that products solving both functional and emotional needs see meaningful benefits, including: 🔹 50% higher retention 🔹 2x revenue 🔹 60% more referrals As AI continues to raise the floor on what "technically solid" looks like, emotional connection becomes the real differentiator. Then, Matt LeMay moderated a fireside chat with Nesrine, where we took questions and dug deeper into the framework. If you're in Chicago's product community, come find us next time. Big thanks to Pritam Das for organizing.

When an engineer flagged a production issue, Infrastructure Manager Dylan Turnbull typed two words into Slack: "@ PieGPT, investigate." Six minutes later, the team had a complete root cause analysis of the issue: ✅ Pod-level crash logs pulled ✅ Memory spikes traced ✅ A deployment timeline reconstructed ✅ A recommended fix provided All while our engineers stayed focused on validating and acting. That’s PieGPT, Avant’s internal AI agent, working as designed. It pulls live data from across our infrastructure stack and surfaces a diagnosis before a manual investigation would even be halfway done. Now, our engineers spend more time making decisions and less time hunting through logs across five different tools. The best part of this particular exchange was Dylan reading the full output, saying 'I agree with this analysis,' and the team moving straight into testing a fix. That's the outcome we built PieGPT to deliver.

Now in his 11th year with Avant, our CFO Kevin Friedrich shares what has made his tenure here so rewarding and what keep his role fresh more than a decade in: “What has kept me here at Avant, and what has made me happy, is the variety. I’m walking out of one meeting and going into another on a completely different topic. A new problem to solve, a new topic to dig into, something new to learn, to see as an opportunity. The job isn’t just numbers on a spreadsheet, it’s the ability to touch a wide range of things across the organization.” Kevin’s experience is a great example of what makes Avant special: no two days look the same, and curiosity is always rewarded. If this sounds like the kind of environment you’d thrive in, take a look at our open roles—we’d love to work with you. avant.com/blog/avant/mee…

Strong technical foundations first. Focused experimentation on top. Learn fast, measure impact, scale what works. That's how our CTO Nick Wolff describes the way Avant's engineering team approaches emerging technology. He shared that philosophy with Built In, who is featuring Avant in their latest roundup of growing companies with cutting-edge tech and big ideas. Read the full piece to hear Nick break down how Avant has been modernizing its core platforms and what it means for the speed and scale at which the team can now operate. #Avant" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">builtin.com/articles/13-gr…

We’re excited to host the next Product Tank Chicago event on April 14. 🗓️ Beyond Function: The Secret to Building Delightful Products In her keynote, Dr. Nesrine Changuel will introduce the Delight Model, a framework for helping product teams move beyond pure functionality to create experiences that resonate emotionally with users. Afterward, she'll join Matt LeMay, author of Impact First Product Teams, for a fireside chat. Events like this—bringing together expert perspectives from across the product world to share ideas—are one of the things we love most about being part of the product community here. Shoutout to our own Pritam Das for organizing. See you there. More details and RSVP here: meetup.com/producttank-ch…

From Soviet refugee to serial entrepreneur and unicorn founder, Avant CEO @goldstein2002 has built a career out of starting over. Last week, Al returned to his alma mater, @giesbusiness at @UofIllinois, to share that story with the next generation of entrepreneurs. Organized by the Jewish Society of Engineers and Entrepreneurs, the event brought together students and alumni for an honest conversation about what it actually takes to build something from nothing, more than once. We're proud to have a founder whose story is worth telling, especially in rooms full of smart people who are just getting started themselves.

This past weekend, we felt extra lucky to have a bird’s eye view of the Chicago River from our office windows 🍀 Every St. Patrick's Day, the city dyes the Chicago River green. This year, Avantees watched it happen from the comfort of our office at the Merchandise Mart. There were snacks, a scavenger hunt, kids running around, temporary tattoos, and a front-row seat to one of Chicago's best traditions. Shoutout to our Fun Committee for pulling it all together, and to the Avantees who shared their pics of the event for this post. We are lucky to have a great crew and a great view. 🍀

One of the things that makes Avant special is the way people step up to build community here. A lot of our recent favorite moments together, like Diwali celebrations and the annual ping pong tournament, have happened because Avantee Pritam Das puts in the work to make them real. Outside the office, Pritam also leads Product Tank Chicago, the local chapter of the global @MindtheProduct community. The group has grown to more than 4,000 members and regularly brings product leaders from across the industry together here in Chicago. We’re excited to host their next event at Avant in April: meetup.com/producttank-ch… We love when people bring what they care about into the office. It’s how we learn from each other and keep building a culture that matters.

There’s never just one way to solve a problem. At Avant, Tyler Fitzgerald gets to choose his own approach and put it into action. “I really like solving problems. At Avant, I get to define my own solutions and then put them into action. I can track how my solution is solving the problem and making a positive impact for others in the business, too. When my work makes someone else’s life easier, or has a measurable impact on the business itself—that’s what makes me happy.” Tyler’s experience is a great example of how Avant’s culture supports creativity, autonomy, and impact at every level. Here, your solutions make a difference and your work shapes the business every day. Sound like a place where your ideas could thrive? Check out our open roles - we’d love to meet you. avant.com/blog/avant/mee…

🥌 We brought the Winter Olympics to the office last month. Desk chair curling. Rubber band archery. Type racing. Teams across Avant showed up ready to compete, in person and virtually, cheering each other on and chasing gold in true Olympics fashion. 🏅 We had a great time (we’ll let the photos speak for themselves). Big congrats to our Olympic champions, The Underwriters of Olympus (aka, Originations). More than anything, it was a good reminder that collaboration doesn’t only happen in meetings. Sometimes it happens over an intense round of ping pong relay. Thanks to our Fun Committee, and especially Aliza Lopez, Lexie Gore, and Julian Ortiz, for making it happen.

Avant’s Summer Internship Program is back. 😎 This summer, our interns will work directly with the teams building financial tools for middle-income consumers. They’ll own meaningful projects and contribute to work that ships. Along the way, they’ll see how decisions get made and how products evolve from idea to release. We’re excited to welcome a group of curious, thoughtful people who want real responsibility early in their careers. Learn more and apply here: avant.wd503.myworkdayjobs.com/External_Caree…

📣 Today, Avant announced another big milestone: We’ve successfully closed a $200 million personal loan securitization transaction that earned inaugural AAA ratings from both Fitch Ratings and Kroll Bond Rating Agency (KBRA)—a first for our personal loan ABS issuance. This milestone is particularly meaningful because it: 🔹 Marks our 23rd personal loan securitization since 2012 🔹 Represents our 7th revolving transaction 🔹 Reinforces the strength of our underwriting models and capital-efficient structure 🔹 Is expected to generate more than $500 million in financing capacity over its 24-month revolving period, further supporting growth in personal loans and credit cards With this transaction and existing commitments, Avant now has approximately $2.5 billion in long-term funding capacity, strengthening our ability to serve more middle-income Americans with access to credit. Avant-branded credit products are issued by WebBank. Learn more: businesswire.com/news/home/2026…

A single task was taking more than two weeks of manual work. Rachel Wei turned it into two clicks—and reshaped her role in the process. ⌛ A member of Avant’s Strategy & Operations team, Rachel noticed that a single ad hoc media transfer would take one person 15+ full workdays to complete due to cross-system complexity. Way too much time. Rachel could see a clear path forward, but it would require engineering support, and those resources were already committed to other high-priority initiatives. So she did what someone with ownership would do: she proposed to her manager (Titus Andrade) that she take on the engineering work herself. Titus said yes and backed her, and both the Product and Engineering teams supported the project as a cross-functional exception. 🔧 The engineering side of the business was a growing interest of Rachel's, and this was an opportunity to lean into it. She taught herself what she needed to know, dug into the codebase, and built a custom standalone media fetch app. The result: what once required weeks of manual effort now takes two clicks (!). 🌱 Today, Rachel’s tool is used by multiple teams, saving Avant weeks and even months of time, and her role has evolved to span both her background in Risk and her expanding capabilities in Engineering. In her own words: "Avant is so flexible—we have this entrepreneurial environment where you get the opportunity to learn. I'm very lucky to be in this environment where my ideas are supported." ⭐ This is what ownership looks like: anticipating friction, proposing a solution, and leaving the system better than you found it. Well done, Rachel - we are proud to call you an Avantee!

Last week, Avantees came together for February Town Hall. Each month, our teams gather at Town Hall to hear directly from leadership about how the business is performing and where we’re headed. We review our progress toward goals, talk through key initiatives, and recognize the teams driving the work forward. Town Hall is critical to our ability to move quickly and stay aligned. That openness drives clarity—when people know where they stand and how their work connects to the bigger picture, alignment follows. Town Hall keeps us focused on what we’re building and why it matters. When the meeting ends, we leave with momentum and a shared sense of what’s next.

What keeps learning, growth, and collaboration at the heart of Avant? Courtney Young, Director of our People team, says it’s Avantees themselves—their curiosity, generosity, and willingness to grow together: "My love of learning is part of who I am, but it also reflects how Avant approaches and solves problems. We don’t say ‘I don’t know how to do it, so someone else should.’ It’s more like, ‘I don’t know how to do it, so who can help me learn?’ Avant is full of people who are curious, generous with their knowledge, and excited to grow–and they want you to grow right alongside them. That’s just the vibe here, and it suits me well." Her experience highlights a culture where collaboration and mentorship are core to how we work, and where your growth matters as much as your impact. If you want to be part of a team where learning and curiosity are encouraged every day, take a look at our open roles. We’d love to hear from you. Read more from Courtney: avant.com/blog/avant/mee…

Thanks to @BuiltInChicago for naming Avant to their 109 Chicago Software Companies You Should Know list! At our core, Avant is a data-driven platform at the intersection of technology and credit, built to meet the financial needs of millions of middle-income American consumers. Our mission is to move financial lives forward, and we do it by utilizing data and technology to connect everyday Americans to financial solutions that empower them to achieve their financial goals and build financial health. It feels great to be recognized for our work alongside so many other awesome companies here in Chicago. builtinchicago.org/articles/chica… *Avant, LLC is a financial technology company, not a bank. Avant-branded credit products are issued by WebBank.

For millions of middle-income Americans, the path to better financial health just got clearer. Today, we announced our launch of Credit Builder, a free financial health tool now available in our mobile app. Through a partnership with @SavvyMoney, Avant’s Credit Builder provides personalized credit insights, real-time monitoring, goal setting, and a credit score simulator that allows users to test how specific actions could impact their creditworthiness, so that they can make decisions that align with their financial goals. Credit Builder is already a driver of real financial progress among initial users: 🔹 357,000 users adopted the tool in the pilot phase 🔹 87% of enrolled users are monthly active users 🔹 75% of users have seen a steady or improved credit score since enrollment 🔹 Users showed better credit performance compared to those not yet enrolled This is one more way we’re helping customers take practical steps toward stronger financial health. Learn about Credit Builder here: businesswire.com/news/home/2026…