The alternative lender will use AI to analyse thousands of data points, including directors’ online footprint, incorporating company websites and social media platforms.
This produces a ‘propensity index’, which lists the businesses that have the greatest potential to be successful in the future.
Highly skilled business underwriters then review the shortlist, with the most promising companies approached.
In an exclusive interview with Bridging & Commercial, John Davies, executive chairman at Just Cashflow (pictured above), claimed that “all SMEs have the potential to benefit from the use of this technology”.
“Start-ups are usually caught in the catch-22 situation of being unable to access financial support, because lenders traditionally request two or more years of accounts to indicate healthy trading.
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“However, the odds are stacked against such businesses if they can’t access the funding they need to invest and grow at an early stage.
“This innovative use of AI enables us to turn start-up business lending on its head by finding these businesses that would otherwise be rejected, but are viable lending partners.
“It would be impossible to do this without harnessing new technology, even if you employed hundreds of additional staff.”
When asked whether improvements should be put in place by lenders for UK SMEs, John stated that there were other alternative lenders “fully focused on helping UK SMEs invest and grow”.
“We are already developing and sharing the benefits of new technologies with existing and potential customers, and this latest initiative — alongside our recent introduction of free fraud prevention software — are prime examples of this.”
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