FinTech startup Flowcast wants to make credit available to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with artificial intelligence.
Founded in 2015, Flowcast uses machine learning to generate predictive models that help lenders automatically assess risk and open up credit to businesses of all sizes—particularly the often-overlooked SMEs. The algorithms also use non-traditional sources to detect risk, such as large volume of transaction data and industry-specific datapoints.
“We started Flowcast with the mission to help the underserved market gain access to capital,” the company explained on its website. “We had the thesis that AI/machine learning can harness the trove of data trapped in databases of traders, banks, logistics companies and others that could – in combination with alternative data sources – be algorithmically predictive in guiding risk management to unlock SME finance.”
Unlike traditional risk assessments, the company’s patent-pending programme updates and monitors the risk assessment of the borrower in real-time. It also helps financial institutions to interpret complex data, insights and information into action without having to write any code.
“We aim to empower Global 500 corporations, financial institutions, and insurance providers around the world to transform the way credit assessment is done.”
In addition to its “Smartcredit” programme, Flowcast also offers a “Smartclaims” system to automate the deduction claims process. The programme’s algorithms can find patterns in customer behavior that can accurately predicting the outcome of any given dispute claim.
Based in San Francisco, California, and Singapore, the startup has raised $3 million in Series A funding in a round led by ING Ventures and BitRock Capital, with participation from Katalyst Ventures and Alpana Ventures. Flowcast is also collaborating with ING for credit decisioning.
“We are impressed by Flowcast’s deep expertise in applying AI to harness large supply chain and banking databases, and develop insights to improve efficiency and accuracy of credit decisioning,” Alfred Shang, managing partner at BitRock, said in a statement. “We believe many corporates and financial institutions will benefit from Flowcast’s solutions.”
