- Credit assessment platform Uplinq Financial Technologies announced a collaboration with Visa.
- Visa has agreed to introduce Uplinq to key financial institutions to help them mitigate risk and expand access to credit for SMEs.
- Uplinq made its Finovate debut last year at FinovateFall in New York.
Credit assessment platform for SME lenders, Uplinq Financial Technologies, has announced a collaboration with Visa. Via the partnership, Visa will introduce Uplinq’s API-based technology to key financial institutions to help them mitigate risk and expand access to credit to small businesses in the U.S. and Canada.
“This engagement is a testament to the promise of our technology in bridging the vast and persistent gaps that small businesses still grapple with when trying to access fair credit, especially as related to minority and all protected class segments,” Uplinq founder and CEO Ron Benegbi said. Visa Commercial Solutions Head of Small Business Matt Baker added that “fast access to working capital” was “especially vital to small businesses” which he referred to as the “backbone” of the world economy.
Uplinq leverages billions of alternative data sets from more than 150 countries, examining a wide range of factors to provide credit assessment and loan adjudication. The company’s platform features more than 10,000 direct connections into SME data sources. Designed to complement a lender’s existing credit assessment process, Uplinq’s technology has supported more than $1.4 trillion in underwritten loans globally.
Founded in 2020, Uplinq is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The company made its Finovate debut last September at FinovateFall, demoing its Credit-Assessment-as-a-Service solution. At the conference, Benegbi used the example of his immigrant father’s struggle to secure a bank loan to add color to the challenges small businesses face when it comes to financing.
“At Uplinq we don’t lend money to small businesses,” he said. “We work with small business lenders to help them say ‘yes’ a lot more often. In fact, five to fifteen times more often, while significantly increasing net income.”
In the year since its appearance on the Finovate stage, Uplinq has raised $1.25 million in funding in October in a round led by ATX Venture Partners. The company secured another $600,000 in February in the form of a strategic investment from Cambrian Ventures.
This spring, Uplinq announced a partnership with SME Finance Forum to make it easier for SMEs around the world access financing. In June, the company was awarded “Fintech Startup of the Year” in the “Lending” category of the Banking Tech Awards. Uplinq also has bolstered its advisory board ranks over the past year, adding former Scotiabank Chief Risk Officer Daniel Moore and former M&T Bank Chief Data Officer Allison Sagraves.