In a round led by Moody’s Corporation, financial business data specialist Finagraph has raised $5 million in funding. The company, which demoed at FinovateSpring 2013 as BBC Easy, will use the fresh capital for both product development as well as increasing its market reach in North America.
“Finagraph streamlines the data collection process by replacing weeks of back-and-forth emails and phone calls with the click of a button, instantly transferring financial and credit information,” Finagraph CEO James Walter explained. “Harnessing the power of technology to automate the exchange of financial information between parties is transformative,” he said.
From left: Finagraph co-founders James Walter, CEO, and Corey Ross, VP sales, demonstrated BBC Easy at FinovateSpring 2013.
This is not the first time Moody’s has expressed interest in the company. Earlier this year, we reported that Moody’s had taken a minority stake in Finagraph, though the amount of the investment was not disclosed. At the time, Mark Almeida, president of Moody’s Analytics, said Finagraph’s technology would help “bankers make better, faster lending decisions for the growing SME market.” The current $5 million investment from Moody’s includes that funding from this spring, as well as recent contributions from other investors.
Finagraph’s flagship technology is its Finagraph Engine, which gathers, processes, and analyzes SME financial data quickly with 100% accuracy. Lenders can add the Finagraph Engine to their loan-origination system or app to better collect key business data as well as compare performance against various benchmarks as well as varying time periods. Finagraph also provides its BBC Easy solution, which automates the borrowing base certificate process for lenders and SMEs, and Finagraph Academy, a collection of webinars and seminars for bankers and business owners that provide guidance on building client relationships, managing business finances, and more.
Founded in 2010 as BBC Easy and rebranding as Finagraph in 2013, the Seattle-based company demonstrated its Base Borrowing Certificate technology at FinovateSpring. In September, Finagraph’s technology was leveraged by Moody’s Analytics to build its MARQ portal, which automates the exchange of financial data between borrowers and lenders, generating the MARQ small business score in the process.