ING’s AI capabilities were given a boost following the announcement that ING would invest in Flowcast, a fintech start-up that improves the credit decision process.

Flowcast uses machine learning algorithms to create predictive models that reduce risk and unlock credit to businesses.

“AI allows organisations to accurately use non-traditional data sources, such as large volumes of transaction data and industry-specific data points to predict risks, said Flowcast CEO Ken So.

He said we believe that it won’t be long before every lending decision will be driven by AI and that ING understands the impact that AI will have on credit.

Commenting on the announcement, ING chief innovation officer, Benoit Legrand said machine learning capabilities, such as those developed by Flowcast, would shape the future of banking, and that ING was very excited about offering Flowcast’s proposition to clients.

ING Ventures co-led the USD3 million Series A investment with Bitrock Capital. A number of other investors also contributed. The money will be used to fund the acceleration of its go-to-market strategy, global market expansion, and continuing product development and improvement.

Today’s announcement follows a pilot conducted by ING Labs Singapore that involved a variety of ING business lines. Outcomes of the pilot strongly supported ING’s decision to invest in Flowcast.

Source: ING

Flowcast, a fintech startup that specializes in smart credit decisioning, has closed USD 3 million of Series A funding, co-led by ING Ventures and Bitrock Capital, with additional funding from existing investors including Katalyst Ventures and Alpana Ventures.

The proceeds of this round will be used to fund the acceleration of Flowcast’s go-to- market strategy, global market expansion, and the continuing product development and improvement.

Flowcast pioneers an innovative, enterprise-grade AI platform to power smarter credit decisions for financial institutions and corporates. Flowcast’s API-based machine learning platform harnesses alternative data to unlock credit at scale. This empowers lenders and corporations to extend and monitor credit that is historically unavailable with conventional lending and credit scoring methods.

Leveraging its patented machine learning technology and a highly acclaimed team of data scientists, Flowcast creates high-performing, explainable predictive models that assess risk more accurately and holistically and unlock value from troves of untapped data.

Collaboration ING Lab Singapore

At the start of 2019 Wholesale Banking ING Labs Singapore commenced a pilot to explore the value add and viability of a strategic partnership between both parties. This pilot set out to prove the value of such a collaboration for credit decisioning business lines within ING, ING’s corporate clients and Flowcast to support its validation and growth.

As a result, numerous ING corporate clients have been involved and within ING a proof of concept has been completed with various business lines (Working Capital Solutions, Trade Tribe and Credit Risk). The outcomes of this pilot strongly support the strategic fit and for ING to invest in Flowcast.

Ken So, CEO Flowcast, states: “AI is poised to make credit available to the underserved. It allows organizations to accurately use non-traditional data sources, such as large volume of transaction data and industry-specific datapoints, to predict risks. We believe that it won’t be long before every lending decision will be driven by AI in order for lenders to stay competitive. ING understands the impact that AI will have on credit. ING walks the walk by reinventing its credit decision process and bringing such innovations to its clients. We look forward to expanding our partnership with ING.”

Commenting on the collaboration, Benoit Legrand, Chief Innovation Officer at ING, said: “Credit decisioning is a core capability of ING. ING strives for continuously strengthening this capability and our offering to ING’s clients. This investment and partnership with Flowcast is one of the concrete results of ING’s Tradetech Labs in Singapore where we aim to create new ventures and build an ecosystem with companies like Flowcast, to empower our clients and ourselves in global trade operations. We believe machine learning capabilities such as those that Flowcast is developing will shape the future of banking and is therefore a strategic priority, and are also very excited about offering Flowcast’s proposition to our clients.”

Commenting on the investment, Alfred Shang, BitRock’s Managing Partner, said: “We are excited to be a partner with ING and Flowcast in this Series A Funding. We are impressed by Flowcast’s deep expertise in applying AI to harness large supply chain and banking databases, and develop insights to improve efficiency and accuracy of credit decisioning. We believe many corporates and financial institutions will benefit from Flowcast’s solutions.”

Source: Flowcast