Varo will be issuing credit products in several states through its own lending licenses. With this move, Varo has created a more holistic offering to address its customers' financial needs. Varo has recently solidified key strategic partnerships to support this launch including a banking and credit relationship with Silicon Valley Bank and Cloud Lending Solutions as system of record.

"We are very excited about the suite of lending products we are building and the partnerships we have formed to support Varo's lending capabilities," said Jaime Jerusalmi, Varo's Head of Lending Products. "In addition to cutting-edge functionality, we plan to raise the bar in terms of helping customers borrow responsibly. Our Varo Flexible Credit product will be a great alternative for people who don't want to use their credit card to finance large purchases, to accommodate an unexpected expense or that want to build their credit".

Colin Walsh, Varo's CEO, added, "Almost half of Americans cannot face a $400 unexpected financial emergency. Our mission is to help people be better prepared for these situations. This is a very important milestone for Varo as we begin providing lending and another clear step toward allowing consumers to take control of all their finances in one intuitive app."

The Varo Money app is currently in beta and is expected to launch in the coming months. Varo recently partnered with Kasisto to introduce "Val," a conversational artificial intelligence (AI) bot, designed to assist customers with banking, financial insights, real-time goals, and plans to cover unexpected emergency expenses. In 2016, Varo partnered with The Bancorp Bank to provide private label banking services to support Varo mobile banking products. Varo has also partnered with Galileo Processing, Inc. to provide payment and transaction processing services.