ForwardAI Announces Small Business Loan Solution Update

Business Data FinTech ForwardAI has released an update of its Precise API tool to streamline financial decisions.

First launched in 2021, Precise is an application programming interface (API) that provides cash flow, accounting, and financial data for small and medium-sized enterprise (SMB) lending.

The update “offers small business lenders a faster and more powerful version of the Precise API, empowering them to make accurate lending decisions faster,” said Nick Chandi, co-founder and CEO of FowardAi, in a press release.

Chandi adds that the tool also gives lenders “the scalable and normalized accounting and financial data they need to make fast, informed decisions.”

“A daily challenge for small business lenders is the ability to quickly and accurately access their accounting and financial data,” said Ciaran Burke, chief operating officer and co-founder of Swoop Funding, in the press release.

Burke also notes that the new Precise is “faster and more efficient, allowing us to focus on growing our business.”

Shortly after Precision launched, PYMNTS spoke to Chandi about his company’s technology that extracts data from accounting systems and puts it back in place. So when a bank integrates this technology and grants access to their payment tracks, bills and due dates can be delivered, outstanding bills can be paid, and accounting systems can be updated.

“We’ve heard from two very large financial institutions so far that are very interested in solving this payment problem for their customers,” Chandi said, noting that they prefer to use their own rail over external processors like PayPal.

“These fintechs or banks are competing to keep customers on their site [by] give them more features, more functionality, and make them more involved,” said Chandi.

PYMNTS also addressed some of the challenges SMEs face when it comes to lending, in a recent interview with Hicham Oudghiri, CEO of Enigma Technologies.

As Oudghrir told Karen Webster, the financial services spectrum has fundamentally changed, particularly when it comes to lending.

There was a time when, in order to get a loan, an SME would go to a bank branch, sit down with managers and other credit professionals and have frank discussions about the status and future of their business.

Then COVID happened and turned the lender-customer relationship into something connected via mobile devices. The crucial information about the borrower is collected through the phone linked to the bank account.

Lenders, Oudghrir said, have a harder time navigating skewed data and trends that could hide true business performance and borrower attractiveness.

The pandemic and stimulus payments helped fill consumers’ bank accounts and keep them spending, which in turn boosted SME wealth. Now things are much more uncertain and some SMBs are struggling harder than ever while others are doing fine.

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