Alternative credit scoring startup AdviceRobo announced today that KPMG has acquired a minority stake in the company. The amount of the investment was not disclosed.
KPMG Head of Advisory Rob Fijneman called AdviceRobo a “front runner” in credit risk management. He added that the partnership would “enable us to add these types of AI-based predictive behavioral models to our services for lenders,” enhancing credit risk models and lowering costs. The partnership will also enable AdviceRobo to take advantage of KPMG’s expertise in a wide variety of areas including risk management, compliance and regulation, Big Data, and analytics.
AdviceRobo’s approach to credit risk management focuses on the insights available from the non-financial and behavioral data of would-be borrowers. The company’s psychographic risk scoring can be used to access the creditworthiness of applicants for products including loans, mortgages, and credit cards. The technology is especially valuable for lenders working with customers from historically underbanked communities, whose thin credit files make them poor candidates for traditional financing. AdviceRobo CEO Diederick van Thiel estimates that there are more than four billion people around the world who fall into this category and said that technology can help financial services firms reach them.
“Our software enables lenders to target these underserved customers and streamline their credit processes,” van Thiel explained. “This stimulates prosperity and the economy. Moreover, our software has the potential to accelerate credit processes and identify the key risk signals of existing clients. For instance, the software can identify vulnerable consumers who will be at risk of defaulting on loans in the future.”
AdviceRobo demonstrated its CreditRobo solution at FinovateEurope 2016. CreditRobo leverages artificial intelligence to evaluate credit risk, providing early warnings on bad debt, default, pre-payment, and outflow; real-time behavioral data on the risk profile of the customer base; and real-time credit scoring for instant onboarding, renewal, and targeting of the underbanked, whether they are millennials or SMEs.
Founded in 2013 and headquartered in London, U.K., Amsterdam, and Paris, AdviceRobo serves clients in ten countries across Europe and Latin America. In April, AdviceRobo joined the BNP Paribas Plug and Play accelerator program, one month before the company was named to Insights Success’ 20 Most Innovative FinTech Solution Providers roster. Also this spring, the company announced a trio of new bank customers: Hungary’s OTP Group, Argenta of the Netherlands, and Banco Macro of Argentina.
A member of KPMG’s Fintech 100 Emerging Stars, AdviceRobo began the year with news that its Psychographic Credit Score solution would be available via Mambu’s Product Marketplace.
