Back before regtech was cool, a Brooklyn, New York-based company called Alloy was introducing Finovate audiences and others to its technology that enables banks and other financial institutions to build fully-customizable APIs for customer identification and compliance. Even more, the company demonstrated how its graphical rules engine implements compliance rules in a way that actually optimizes conversions and coverage. Alloy’s technology empowers companies to choose which data sources are used and how they are applied. This lets companies decide how to customize and optimize this aspect of their own onboarding processes.
We first met Alloy in 2016, when the company demoed its technology at our developers conference, FinDEVr Silicon Valley. In the years since then, Alloy has grown into an end-to-end identity risk management platform with more than 600 banks, credit unions, and fintechs using its technology to manage fraud, credit, and compliance risks. The company has raised more than $207 million in funding according to Crunchbase. Glia most recently secured an investment of $52 million in follow-on Series C funding in September 2022 from Avenir, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and other investors.
Alloy was founded in 2015 by Tommy Nicholas (CEO), Laura Spiekerman (President), and Charles Hearn (CTO) who met while working at a payments startup. In their mission statement they note that, in the company’s early days, they faced skepticism from investors, but were heartened by client feedback, which they said was “overwhelmingly positive” and inspired the founding trio to forge ahead.
These days, more and more companies are getting the message. In the past few days, Alloy announced partnerships with commercial lending platform Numerated and embedded finance and payment solutions provider Sonovate.
Alloy’s strategic partnership with Numerated will enable the latter’s customers to conduct robust fraud checks seamlessly from within their own lending operations. The partnership will bring streamlined onboarding, enhanced fraud prevention, and a unified digital experience to Numerated’s platform. This will help Numerated’s customers capture deposits and offer competitive lending products to their SME and commercial borrowers.
“Fraud prevention and lending automation are crucial in today’s financial landscape,” Numerated CEO Dan O’Malley said. “By partnering with Alloy, we are ensuring that our platform not only meets but exceeds the expectations of financial institutions looking for secure, scalable lending solutions. This partnership allows us to deliver the best of both worlds — top-tier risk management combined with the efficiency and speed of automation.”
Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, Numerated leverages advanced data and AI to help companies automate their business lending operations — from application to closing. With 500,000+ businesses and 30,000+ lenders among its customers, Numerated processes $400 million in loan volume every hour and, since inception, has processed more than $50 billion in loans on its platform.
With Sonovate, Alloy’s identity risk technology will be deployed to help the company combat rising fraud trends in the U.K. as it seeks to scale its operations. In a statement announcing the partnership, the companies noted a report from UK Finance that underscored the challenge of more sophisticated, AI-powered tools that fraudsters are using against financial institutions. The report discovered that $1.5 billion (£1.17 billion) was lost to financial criminals in 2023 alone.
“With its network of data sources, Alloy gives us the power to protect our business and customers from financial crime and the flexibility to make adjustments as needed as our business scales,” Sonovate Global Head of Risk and Compliance Tom Wilson said. “We are excited for this next step in our global growth.”
U.K.-based Sonovate serves recruitment businesses, consultancies, and labor marketplaces with embedded finance and payment solutions for their workforces. Sonovate provides swift credit decisioning, same-day funding, credit insurance, collection services, and both timesheet and workflow automation. Founded in 2014, the company has funded nearly $8 billion in invoices, supporting 3,300 businesses and 50,000 workers in 44 countries.
In addition to its partnerships with fintechs, Alloy announced last month that it was working with Meridian Credit Union, to help Canada’s second largest credit union enhance its user experience and reduce fraud risk for its 380,000+ members. Also this year, Alloy published its 2024 State of Embedded Finance report which examines trends in embedded finance risk management and compliance.