A credit-building tool fintech founder Ken Lian built out of personal need just got an artificial intelligence-powered upgrade.

Lian and co-founders Zhen Wang and Qingyi Li recently launched Cheers Financial – a startup run out of Pasadena-based Idealab Inc. which combines fast-tracked credit-building with “immigrant-friendly” onboarding.

“Our mission is really to try to make credit fair to individuals who want to have financial freedom in the U.S.,” Lian said.

After coming to the U.S. as an international student from China in 2008, Lian said he struggled for four years to get a bank’s approval for a credit card. Since 2021, the USC alumnus’ fintech ventures have aimed to break down the hurdles immigrants like him often face in accessing and building credit.

Since its launch in November, Cheers Financial has seen “healthy growth,” Lian said, with thousands using its secured personal loan product to build credit through automated monthly payments. At the end of the 24-month loan period, users get their principal back minus about 12.2% interest.

“The product is designed to automate the entire flow, so users basically can set and forget it,” Lian said.

Cheers, partnering with Minnesota-based Sunrise Banks, boasts an average 21-point increase in credit scores within a couple of months among its users coming in with “fair” scores from the high 500s to mid-600s.

With help from AI data summary and matching, the company reports to the three major credit bureaus every 15 days – two times as frequent as popular credit-building app Kikoff. Lian hopes to shave that down to seven days.

Cheers is far from Lian, Wang and Li’s first step into alternative financial tools. An earlier venture launched in 2021, Cheese Inc., served a similar goal as an online platform providing credit-building loans alongside other services, including a zero-fee debit card with cash back.

Cheese folded when the company it used as its middle layer, Synapse Financial Technologies, collapsed in April 2024 and locked thousands of users out of their savings.

For Lian and other fintech founders, Synapse’s fall was a wake-up call to the gaps and risks of digital banking’s status quo. As he geared up for Cheers, Lian knew in-house models and a direct company-to-bank relationship were key.

“That allows us to build a very secure and stable platform for our users,” Lian said.

Despite cooling investment in fintech, Cheers nabbed backing from San Francisco-based Better Tomorrow Ventures’ $140 million fintech fund. Automating base-level processes with AI has given the company a chance to operate at a lower cost, Lian said.

“You don’t need to build everything from the ground up,” Lian said. “You can let AI build the basic part, and then you optimize from that.”

Strong demand from high-quality users who spread the word to friends and relatives has helped, too. Some have even started Cheers accounts before arriving in the U.S., Lian said, to get a head start on building credit.