Praetura Group, the North West-based debt and equity capital provider to small and medium-sized businesses in the UK, has launched a custom-built tech platform to enhance its SME lending process: Praeview. The firm explained it hopes the platform will help more SMEs access funding faster through its broker partners.
Praeview aims to double Praetura’s total capacity for the number of businesses it can support in the next 12 months. Designed to deliver quicker and more accurate lending decisions at scale, Praetura explained that Praeview becomes the first tech platform of its kind in the UK alternative finance industry, with no other lender developing a bespoke platform with this level of technical capability combined with significant first-party data.
The platform aggregates individual and SME financial data from over 15 sources, correlating it to sectors, asset classes and economic conditions. Using this data, Praeview provides underwriters and decision-makers with an accurate risk profile for each individual or SME that applies for finance and a bespoke score to inform the terms of each deal.
The introduction of the Praeview platform means more time becomes available for credit and risk teams to assess and restructure options to better suit the particular circumstances of different SMEs. The platform also provides data entry and end-to-end risk monitoring with real-time alerts, by plugging into software used by banks, institutions, and brokers via the tool’s application programming interface (API).
‘An entrepreneurial approach to lending by putting SMEs first’
Peadar O’Reilly, CEO of the Praetura Lending Division and co-founder of Praetura Group, said: “At Praetura we have always taken an entrepreneurial approach to SME lending by putting SMEs first and making funding available quicker than other lenders. The challenge, however, is balancing this with risk assessments and the checks and balances we need to carry out.
“We’re now able to lend and make lending decisions faster than ever before thanks to Praeview. We’re aiming to create a new standard within the finance sector that will complement the essential work that banks, underwriters and brokers do. This is part of our ongoing commitment to help UK SMEs get access to the finance they need to succeed.”
Ruta Makunaite, Praetura Group’s head of technology, also discussed the launch: “With Praeview, our mission is to empower the people tasked with lending decisions and monitoring risk rather than replacing them, which is what the narrative around tech solutions is focused on in a lot of instances right now. Drawing on 20 years of data and our own expertise, we have created a powerful solution that will inevitably lead more SMEs to get the funding they need.”
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