Credit Intelligence partners up with UTS to develop disruptive AI credit engine

The three-year deal with UTS seeks to develop an AI-based credit engine on YOZO platform that will allow loan assessment, approval and funding happens 24/7.

Credit Intelligence (ASX:CI1) has just announced a three-year research partnership agreement with the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), to further improve and enhance the AI machine learning capabilities of its disruptive lending platform, YOZO.

Specifically, the company will be working with the university’s Data Science and Machine Intelligence Lab (DSMI) – a well-recognised expert with a strong track record in predictive analytics.

One of the goals the partnership seeks to achieve is to launch a 24/7 AI-driven lending tool, called the Smart Instant Credit Scoring System, where SMEs can apply for a business loan at any time, and get approval and fast access to funds instantly, even on the weekends. With this new technology, not only can customers access funding anytime but also get an overview of their in-depth business financial analytics which allows the customer to be in a better financial position.

Ultimately, the partnership’s long-term goal is to upgrade the current lending system to a reliable, accurate, and fast loan processing engine by developing AI-empowered credit assessment, and risk forecasting models.

Loans within minutes

Since 2019, YOZO has started to adopt artificial intelligence and big data analytics to build its smart lending engine. The platform has been able to streamline the application process into one powered by AI, data insights and decision-making tools.

Speaking exclusively with Stockhead, YOZO co-founder, Sunny Zhu, says the new technology will be a big improvement from the traditionally accepted way of assessing a potential borrower, which usually involves using a long-predefined set of questionnaires and a lengthy approval process.

‘When you are running a business, you tend to be occupied by running the operation of the business which sometimes even means seven days a week,” Zhu said.

“And the only time you have available to search for a finance solution might be either after hours, or weekends where everything is closed. We are here to solve this.”

The engine will work 24/7- with assessment, approval, and funding completed within minutes.

“This will be a game changer,” he added.

The AI-powered engine will also be able to explore more data about the borrower, both internal and external, which are then input into the engine’s algorithm to create a high quality, accurate, and fast credit scoring system.

By feeding all these information sources into a complex financial ecosystem, the company says it will be able to use data mining techniques to dynamically depict customers, and identify those with potential financial issues. This will in turn mitigate the company’s risks, avoid potential bad loans – which ultimately reduces operational operating costs.

Long term commitment with UTS

The Australian government is currently looking for new ideas to help SMEs post-Covid, with organisations like UTS also looking to partner up with solid and credible industry partners like YOZO – who it shares the same disruptive vision with. .

Professor Guandong Xu of UTS, says that the partnership today will be a positive outcome for the Australian SME market as a whole.

“AI technology plays the key technology innovation driving role in FinTech and witnesses the great business. The partnership between UTS and YOZO will solidate and lift our past collaboration to a higher level, aiming to boost the YOZO’s R&D capability and innovation capacity through translating the UTS’s leading AI and data science research into business productivity. The completion of the collaborative will not only advance the innovative financial services and products but also benefit the financial resilience and business growth of Australian broader SMEs in post-covid era”

The YOZO ecosystem

The company says the YOZO platform is not just about lending. CI1 aims to build a complex, long term ecosystem where customers can interact with each other and other suppliers, under the one big umbrella of YOZO.

In the future, the platform also plans to connect the retail consumers with the SMEs, creating a fully fledged and complete B2C platform.

CEO of CI1, Jimmie Wong, has big ambitions and is in it for the long game.

“It’s a long term vision with UTS, and we will have a lot of projects within the next three years. There will be a lot of features and functions we need to add, and advancements in AI will never end.”

“Our goal is to have 2million SMEs and 5 million retail customers on YOZO, and so we need to analyse a lot of business activities such as bank statements, bad debts, as well consumer patterns,” he added.

Wong says the ultimate goal is to serve the Australian SMEs and nation’s economy.

Asked why now is the best time to invest in CI1, Wong says the valuation of the company will be big once the YOZO platform reaches its goal of having 2 million customers, and 5 million retail customers.

“The valuation of this platform will be a unicorn,” Wong says.

This article was developed in collaboration with Credit Intelligence, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.