NatWest’s funding brings Nucleus’ total funding to £900m, helping them inch ever closer to surpassing their £3 billion lent milestone since launching 12 years ago. This new funding line from NatWest will enable NCF to continue supporting the UK’s economic backbone through its short and long-term unsecured loan product, with 2,000+ small and medium-sized businesses potentially benefiting directly from this new funding facility alone.

SMEs across the UK can access up to £2m through a Nucleus Business Loan and receive a decision in minutes thanks to the fintech lender’s AI-powered automated underwriting system. With insolvencies at the highest level since 2009, this could prove a genuine lifeline for UK SMEs.

Nucleus will use the facility with NatWest to increase its flexibility and drive innovation, offering more competitively priced funding to UK SMEs at speed while providing the structure businesses need to withstand downside risks and adverse market conditions.

Nucleus Commercial Finance CEO, Chirag Shah, comments: ‘There has been a significant funding gap in the UK for several years, leaving SMEs struggling to meet their full potential through lack of access to financing. 

“With innovation a top priority for fintech lenders, businesses are now finally able to seamlessly secure the funding they need to thrive. Through investments in tech, including embracing AI and the Open Banking/Open Accounting initiatives, we’ve managed to overhaul our entire lending process and now 96% of our decisions are made in under one minute.

‘Nucleus Business Loans provide a viable and accessible alternative, delivering the finance SMEs need to grow, with the speed and terms suited to their needs. Our straightforward approach to securing funding means that we can work with SMEs to provide the financial boost required to unlock their ambitions, by ensuring that they have the right finance in place for the future.

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With the integration of Argyle, lenders will have access to consumer-permissioned income and employment data via Argyle’s secure connections directly to the payroll source. This data can be requested directly in the Encompass^® platform and imported to borrower files in just a few easy steps. Connected accounts are continuously monitored and updated with current payroll documents, and real-time verification reports can be instantaneously generated throughout the entirety of the mortgage loan origination process. This ensures lenders have accurate and reliable data from application to closing.

“We are extremely excited to have Argyle’s capabilities now accessible through the Encompass platform. Our mission is to remove friction and cost from the home buying experience, and this integration delivers just that to our mutual clients. This integration furthers the joint commitment of Argyle and ICE Mortgage Technology to drive efficiency for our customers, enable better accessibility and provide a superior process for mortgage lenders and consumers alike,” said Shmulik Fishman, CEO of Argyle.

For more information visit: Argyle on the Marketplace by ICE Mortgage Technology^®.

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TrueSpace is a consultancy and research firm specializing in guiding accomplished CEOs of established post-startup enterprises towards achieving their next-level objectives. Epic River has been in partnership with TrueSpace for three years. With their support, Epic River has experienced remarkable growth in terms of revenue and its influence within the industry.

“It has been incredible to witness the foundational growth Epic River has undergone during the three years we’ve worked with their leadership executives,“ said Charles Fred, co-founder and CEO of TrueSpace. “We commend their team’s dedication to deeply examining their core organizational vision and harnessing this internal alignment to craft well-defined growth strategies for enduring company success.”

TrueSpace assesses CEOs and their organizations using a framework of five operating conditions: Alignment, Endurance, Discipline, Predictability and Value Creation. The Alignment criteria gauge the effectiveness of a company in aligning its limited resources—time, capital, and talent— to focus on a well-defined market and a unique perspective. Earning this award signifies that Founder/CEO Jeff Grobaski and the Epic River team have adeptly fostered organizational cohesion and possess the fundamental elements required for long-term, sustainable growth.

Epic River is a SaaS software company dedicated to helping community banks and credit unions maintain their competitive edge by integrating digital lending with their trusted community presence. The company’s lending-as-a-service platform empowers these financial institutions to collaborate with healthcare providers, offering patient financing services. Through Epic River’s patient lending technology, community financial institutions can generate high-quality loans, reduce medical bill non-payment risk faced by healthcare providers and provide cost-effective payment solutions to patients in need.

“We are incredibly honored to receive the Alignment Award from TrueSpace,” said Grobaski. “Working with their team has deeply strengthened our business strategies and helped us recognize how we could synchronize our organizational focus with our objectives of sustaining local banking institutions and supporting communities across the country. Aligning our activities with our overarching mission has enabled us to effectively grow the business and better position community banks to serve their local healthcare markets.”

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Lisa Bodell, CEO of FutureThink, is a best-selling author of “Kill the Company” and “Why Simple Wins” and is known as one of the top 50 speakers in the world. She is a global expert on simplification, collaboration, and innovation. Bodell inspires audiences to eliminate complexity and make simplicity a new way of life to do meaningful work.

“Bodell brings compelling perspective to the sought-after topics of simplification and innovation,” said Phil DuPree, chief revenue officer for Origence. “Her transformative insights will undoubtedly elevate Lending Tech Live ’24, as credit unions look to streamline complex processes, allowing for more time and resources to drive innovation.”

Additional conference sessions include interactive workshops designed to help attendees maximize their lending program, develop borrower journeys that strengthen connections with members, and identify critical regulatory topics for 2024, among other valuable topics.

After achieving a record-breaking year in 2023 with its highest-ever attendance, Lending Tech Live ’24 solidifies its position as the foremost lending technology conference in the credit union industry. The event immerses attendees in the world of innovative tools and technologies shaping the lending landscape, offering expert guidance on best practices, lending strategies, emerging trends, research, and more.To view the full list of speakers or to learn more about registration opportunities, visit the Lending Tech Live website.

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Peach’s lending technology platform provides lenders with a loan management system, payment processing, borrower portal, CRM, agent portal, reporting, omnichannel communications and compliance monitoring, as well as a Self-Service Portfolio Migration capability.

Built on Google Cloud, Peach will develop a range of proprietary AI-powered solutions across servicing technology and customer experience—helping lenders drive operational efficiency and stay ahead of the curve. Examples of AI-powered solutions include call transcription, call coaching, smart reply, suggested responses, AI-driven chatbots, case summarization, agent self-service training and help, and additional solutions that will be announced at a later time.

Peach CTO Eran Sandler spoke about the partnership and the potential of AI in lending: “Peach has leveraged Google Cloud from day one, benefiting from Google Cloud’s experience running safe, performant and secure cloud infrastructure. With AI, Google Cloud has applied the same security and safety principles, allowing Peach to securely and safely use AI to enhance our lenders’ capabilities. Lender data will never be used to train Google Cloud AI models, and cannot be accessed by Google Cloud.”

Sandler continued: “At Peach, our promise to lenders is to continually deliver technology that enables them to stay ahead of the curve. That’s why our platform is API-first, fully configurable, and designed to support virtually any asset class—and it’s why delivering the next generation of AI-powered lending technology enhancements is simply the logical next step to enable our clients to thrive in an increasingly AI-driven world.”

“AI is accelerating transformation across a broad range of industries, from healthcare to finance,” said Zac Maufe, Head of Regulated Industries, Google Cloud. “Peach has already seen the benefits of using Google Cloud’s secure and scalable cloud technology to build its platform, and by using our advanced AI technology, Peach can drive operational efficiency for its customers with more effective and efficient customer service experiences that are critical to the loan servicing process.”

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The Pan Finance Team meticulously evaluated lending services across various dimensions, including Impact, Growth, Reach, and Uniqueness. After careful consideration, Loanspark emerged as the undisputed champion in the lending industry, setting new standards for excellence.

“It is evident that Loanspark’s commitment resonates with its clients, solidifying its position as a leading and trusted lending platform. Loanspark’s strategic partnerships and collaborations with industry leaders further demonstrate their dedication to fostering sustainable business relationships. These collaborations enable them to leverage the expertise of industry veterans and continuously enhance the ability to deliver sustainable and innovative financial solutions,” says the Pan Finance research team.

This award reaffirms Loanspark’s stature as a leader in the financial industry, recognized for its dedication to clients and fidelity to delivering fair and secure financial solutions.

Loanspark’s Founder and CEO Michael Barnett expressed his gratitude, stating, “We are incredibly honored to receive this reputable distinction from Pan Finance. The 2023 Lending Service of the Year award would not have been possible without the exceptional contributions and allegiance of our entire Loanspark team. It reflects our ongoing commitment to serving our customers with integrity, transparency, and a vision for a bright financial future.”

This accolade marks a significant milestone in Loanspark’s journey, serving as a source of motivation to uphold and surpass the company’s commitment to excellence, innovation, and the highest standards of service. Loanspark is focused on empowering businesses with lending solutions that make a meaningful and positive impact on their success.

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TAB Bank is a technology-driven, online bank serving small businesses, families, and individuals nationwide. Recently named “Best Community Bank in Utah,” TAB Bank has served small and medium-sized businesses from a wide range of industries for a quarter of a century.

“Partnering with Biz2X enables us to streamline our small to medium business lending decision-making, expand lending options, and make it easy for SMBs to get the capital they require for growth,” said Rick Bozzelli, President and CEO of TAB Bank. “Since 1998, our goal is to provide access to capital and financial success for everyone.”

TAB Bank provided nearly $25 million in community development loans, investments and approximately $100,000 in grants, donations, and contributions during 2022. The bank has received honors from the American Business Awards, Utah Business, GOBankingRates Top 100 Banks, 20 Best Online Banks of 2022, and Bankrate’s Best Online Banks of 2022.

“The Biz2X^® platform has enabled us to greatly expand our reach to better serve SMBs by providing a centralized location for customers and referral partners alike to apply for financing. It has also streamlined our underwriting processes, enhancing our ability to provide our small business customers the working capital they need to run their businesses,” commented Randy Allred, VP of SMB Lending at TAB Bank.

“Biz2X’s award-winning software was developed by using over a decade of Biz2Credit’s proven online lending experience. We understand what banks need to best service the small business space,” said Rohit Arora, CEO of Biz2X and Biz2Credit, and a leading expert in the fintech and small business lending space. “We are proud and excited to work with TAB Bank to enhance their risk management and improve their business loan decision-making, while providing a better experience for customers.”

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Harmoney selected Finvi’s Katabat solution to support its efforts of changing the traditional personal lending model to put the customer at the center, and to use technology and data to make money more human.

“We look forward to helping Harmoney improve its collections efficiency, with smarter, more-effective strategies, increase customer satisfaction with personalized treatment strategies, and ultimately, collect more,” said Tim O’Brien, Chief Executive Officer at Finvi. “By having a single source of truth from a collections standpoint, and a means to centralize and manage collections strategies, Harmoney will have a critical tool to support its strategy of growing its product offerings for consumers across the ANZ market.”

Since 2014, Harmoney has helped more than 70,000 people in Australia and New Zealand achieve their goals through financial products and services that are friendly, fair and easy to use.

“Our purpose is to help and inspire people to start now on their dreams or start fresh – through financial products that are simple, smart and secure,” said Andrew Bates, Chief Technology Officer at Harmoney. “In Finvi, we saw an innovative partner to help us continue transforming the way people across Australia and New Zealand borrow money — through personalized consumer choice, informed by data science and delivered through superior technology.”

Finvi’s complete Katabat solution helps make agents more efficient, and helps organizations develop smarter, more effective strategies while improving the customer experience. It can also protect your brand value by reducing compliance risk, as well as drive customer strategy innovation by closely monitoring their success while creating personalized customer treatment strategies.

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The fundamental value of Juvo’s vision is to capitalize on data from mobile transactions to offer individuals access to credit through its exclusive credit analysis platform. The platform relies on solid financial indicators to gather information on mobile user behavior, such as creditworthiness and customer preferences, to determine lending potential and credit risk. Furthermore, Juvo partners with world-class mobile operators to tap into usage patterns around prepaid mobile services and address the coverage gaps of traditional credit bureaus.  As a result, its state-of-the-art technology makes Juvo’s assessment highly efficient and accurate. Additionally, it facilitates the inclusion of a demographic segment into the financial system that would otherwise have no access to credit due to insufficient financial data.

“By applying predictive analytics, data science, and behavioral analytics to incremental borrowing and repayment transactions, Juvo has built 250 million financial identities worldwide, driving financial and credit inclusion of 68% of the global adult population with no formal credit histories,” said Nikita Pradeep Talnikar, research analyst at Frost & Sullivan.

In Brazil, Juvo has been providing micro-loans to the prepaid population of millions of Brazilians via their mobile devices, amassing a unique data set and proprietary scoring algorithms on almost 100% of the population. Combining this proprietary data with proven algorithms, Juvo can uniquely target, score and provide fair financial services to the sub-prime Brazilian market with unprecedented repayment rates.  Juvo’s services are enabling ultra-competitive interest rates to be offered, fundamentally changing the economics of sub-prime financial services to unlock a multi-billion market that to date has been uneconomical all the while enabling millions and millions of D & E class Brazilians to gain access to credit often for the first time.  Juvo’s impressive efficiency is driving the company’s tremendous growth in large markets such as Brazil, where its deep understanding of consumers and their consumption patterns has enabled it to offer credit to over 11 million Brazilians.

“Juvo’s concentrated efforts toward making data-backed lending decisions have been the bedrock of its commercialization success”, noted Talnikar. Along with direct-to-consumer strategy, Juvo has partnered with other financial services and retail marketplaces who also identified the big opportunity and competitive advantage to expand financial services to millions of underserved consumers.

With its strong overall performance, Juvo earns Frost & Sullivan’s 2023 Technology Innovation Leadership Award in the Latin America inclusive digital credit industry.

Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has developed a product with innovative features and functionality that is gaining rapid acceptance in the market. The award recognizes the quality of the solution and the customer value enhancements it enables.

Frost & Sullivan Best Practices awards recognize companies in various regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analyses, and extensive secondary research to identify best practices in the industry.

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Powered by Hedgeweek, a leading information provider for the hedge fund community, and with fund manager data provided by Bloomberg, the Award rewards fund performance and service provider excellence within hedge fund emerging managers. Winners are recommended by Bloomberg based on 2022 Calendar Year fund performance, and voted by the hedge fund community

The Fund is also the winner of Hedgeweek 2021 Best Emerging Manager – Credit Hedge Award.

Launched in 2019, the Fund is backed by collateral, guarantee and subordination structure, and adopts global private credit strategies, including consumer installments, auto inventory financing, and consumer credit, providing a long-term and diversified fixed income portfolio.

The Fund mainly invests in the U.S., Southeast Asia, Africa, Latin America and other emerging markets with demographic dividends and growth potentials to provide stable yield, high liquidity and low correlation with traditional asset classes.

The Fund succeeded in generating stable long-term returns, far outpacing benchmark returns.

According to Jerry Wang, founder and CEO of Hi2 Global, despite volatilities in the stock and crypto markets and redemptions affecting the liquidity of our credit fund, our fund’s capital flow turned positive by the end of 2022 and AUM has been on a steady increase in 2023.

The Fund invests based on three emerging themes: re-globalization, digitalization and ESG. According to Wang, the robust GDP growth of emerging markets, the strengthening of the  global supply chain and the signing of Indo-Pacific Economic Framework will bring more investment opportunities in coming decades.

As a fin-tech based global asset allocation platform, Hi2 Global embraces sectors such as fintech and ecommerce by investing in undervalued, but not necessarily distressed assets. According to Wang, these sectors in the US and emerging markets still offer the best growth opportunities and risk adjusted returns.

Hi2 Global provides Investment as a Service (IaaS) which leverages financial technologies, financial innovations and regulated capital markets in the U.S.to provide access to exclusive alternative investment opportunities to all investors, particularly individual investors.

Since its inception in 2014 in New York, Hi2 Global has been incorporating ESG into its investment process. In 2022, the firm became a signatory of the United Nations (UN) Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), the world’s leading proponent of responsible investment.

Hi2 Global is committed to seeking investment opportunities with embedded ESG themes, such as financial inclusion, sustainable consumption, health improvement and environmental protection.

According to Wang, as the hedge fund industry continues to adapt to a highly uncertain global macroeconomic environment, private credit is one of a few bright spots and is expected to continue to grow in size and strategies.

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