China-based and NASDAQ-listed Internet search provider Baidu has made a strategic investment in US firm ZestFinance, a Los Angeles-based company that uses machine learning to transform vast amounts of complex data into credit scores. Financial terms of the investment are undisclosed.
The company in a media statement said that artificial intelligence (AI) experts and data scientists at both firms plan to work together to apply ZestFinance’s underwriting technology to Baidu’s search, location, and payment data in order to improve credit scoring decisions in China.
