FICO (NYSE: FICO) is a software company based in San Jose, California and founded by Bill Fair and Earl Isaac in 1956.Its FICO score, a measure of consumer credit risk, has become a fixture of consumer lending in the United States.he company debuted its first general-purpose FICO score in 1989. Scores are based on credit reports and range from 300 to 850. Lenders use the scores to gauge a potential borrower's creditworthiness.