Finance
Here is the 14-page pitch deck a fintech helping SMBs get approved for loans via alt data used to raise $1.8 million from ATX Venture Partners, Rex Salisbury, and others
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- Uplinq uses alt data and artificial intelligence to measure the riskiness of SMB borrowers.
- The startup comes up with a score for SMBs that provides the likelihood of a default.
- Here is the deck Uplinq used to raise a $1.8 pre-seed extension round.
One financial-technology startup trying to bring alternative data to small-business lending is catching the attention and dollars of some of the most notable fintech investors in the space.
Uplinq, a two-year-old startup that provides an alternative risk metric to credit scores, just secured $1.8 million in a pre-seed extension round with ATX Venture Partners, which has invested in other back-end fintechs, like payroll startup Atomic. Other investors in the round include Rex Salisbury, a former A16z investor who launched his own fund, and Daniel Moore, a former chief risk officer at Scotiabank.
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The latest round brings Uplinq’s total funding to $5.6 million, with the startup raising its initial $3.5 million pre-seed round in April 2022. The company declined to disclose its valuation.
Uplinq uses alternative data to measure the riskiness of small and medium-sized business (SMB) borrowers, a customer segment the startup’s CEO said is often overlooked by traditional banks.
“Basically, it’s ‘give me three years of financials, let me pull a credit score on you and the business and then let me make a credit decision,'” Ron Benegbi, CEO of Uplinq, told Insider. “Well, in today’s world, do most small businesses have three years of financials? And if they do, are they going to be accurate? And is the credit score really an accurate reflection of their true credit worthiness?”
The startup uses alternative data, like foot traffic and cell phone signals in the business’ area, or property and tax information pulled from the Department of Commerce, to get a fuller and more accurate picture of the business, Benegbi said. Uplinq also pulls in market data to predict how events around the world may impact business, from inflation impacting pricing to ripple effects from the war in Ukraine, he added.
Uplinq provides its lenders with two statistical scores: the probability a loan will default and a so-called “confidence score” that the underwriting is compliant with bank regulations and the models can trace the results back to the underlying data.
Launched in the fall of 2022, Uplinq is working with four banks in the US and Canada, Benegbi said. However, in earlier pilots with banks, Uplinq was able to increase loan approvals by at least five times without pushing lenders outside of their desired credit box or risk exposure, Benegbi said.
“They’re all declines, that’s where we start,” Benegbi said. “Give us all your declines in the last 24 months, let us show you why you should have approved at least 50% of them based on your credit criteria.”
Here’s the 14-page pitch deck Uplinq used to raise $1.8 million.