Who founded FairPlay?

FairPlay was founded by Kareem Saleh, John Merrill in 2020.

Who are FairPlay's investors?

FairPlay's investors include Fin Capital, Financial Venture Studio, Infinity Ventures, Nazca, Nyca, Nyca Partners, Restive Ventures, Third Prime and 2 more.

FairPlay

Founded 2020 · 25 employees on LinkedIn · 10 known investors

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FairPlay applies AI to consumer loan underwriting to help lenders assess hard-to-score borrowers and improve financial inclusion. Its focus is fairness and bias testing in AI-driven credit and financial services.

AI & Machine Learning Fintech SaaS

Founders & leadership

FairPlay was founded in 2020 by Kareem Saleh and John Merrill.

Kareem Saleh Founder & CEOFounder and CEO of FairPlay, Saleh previously served as Executive Vice President at Zest.ai, where he led go-to-market strategy for an AI-powered underwriting platform and managed a $100M installment loan business. He also held executive roles at SoftCard, a mobile payments startup acquired by Google, and served in senior positions in the Obama Administration, including Chief of Staff to the State Department's Special Envoy for Climate Change and Senior Advisor to the CEO of OPIC.

John MerrillCo-Founder & CTOCo-founder and CTO of Fairplay. John Merrill has led projects across large corporate and startup environments and has experience in technical specification development and executive communications.

Adrian LaiVP of Marketing & Growth

Abby HoganSVP of Legal AffairsAbby Hogan is SVP of Legal Affairs at FairPlay, which applies AI to consumer loan underwriting and fairness testing in financial services. She spent nine years at the CFPB focused on fair lending enforcement and examinations, then worked as in-house counsel at Discover and City National Bank on fair lending and regulatory compliance, and holds a master's degree in International Political Economy.

Mark JonesVP of Engineering

Patrick CadicCOO

Mark EbersteinEVP of Data ScienceMark Eberstein is EVP of Data Science at FairPlay, which applies AI to consumer loan underwriting and fairness testing in credit decisioning. He has background in algorithms and computer science, with experience in image/signal processing, machine learning, and econometrics, as well as architecting production software systems.

Kim GerhardtPartnerships

Investors · 10

Fin Capitallisted by Fin CapitalSan Francisco · $250K – $15M

How we know: Fin Capital's portfolio page · Not right? Tell us

Financial Venture Studiolisted by Financial Venture StudioSan Jose

Infinity Ventureslisted by Infinity VenturesSan Francisco · $250K – $10M

How we know: Infinity Ventures's portfolio page · a partner's Signal profile · the VCSheet dataset · Not right? Tell us

Nazcalisted by NazcaMexico City

How we know: Nazca's portfolio page · a partner's Signal profile · Not right? Tell us

Nycalisted by NycaNew York · $2M

How we know: Nyca's portfolio page · Not right? Tell us

Nyca Partnerslisted by Nyca PartnersNew York · $1M – $10M

How we know: Nyca Partners's portfolio page · a partner's Signal profile · Not right? Tell us

Restive Ventureslisted by Restive VenturesSan Jose · $50K – $2.5M

How we know: the VCSheet dataset · Not right? Tell us

Third Primelisted by Third PrimeNew York · $500K – $2M

How we know: Third Prime's portfolio page · a partner's Signal profile · Not right? Tell us

Oak HC/FTreportedStamford

How we know: a partner's Signal profile · Not right? Tell us

TTV CapitalreportedAtlanta · $250K – $7M

How we know: the VCSheet dataset · Not right? Tell us

Founder mafia

2 people who came through FairPlay went on to found or lead other companies.

Jeremy JonkerInvestorFounded Infinity Ventures Jay GanatraBoard MemberFounded Infinity Ventures

Frequently asked questions

What does FairPlay do?: FairPlay applies AI to consumer loan underwriting to help lenders assess hard-to-score borrowers and improve financial inclusion. Its focus is fairness and bias testing in AI-driven credit and financial services.
Who founded FairPlay?: FairPlay was founded by Kareem Saleh, John Merrill in 2020.
Who are FairPlay's investors?: FairPlay's investors include Fin Capital, Financial Venture Studio, Infinity Ventures, Nazca, Nyca, Nyca Partners, Restive Ventures, Third Prime and 2 more.