Aire
Credit risk-scoring platform powered by machine learning
- Aneesh Varma, CEO
- London, UK
- March 2016
- Current
- Series A
The Investment
A large proportion of the UK financial population are "thin-files" — non-standard applicants that traditional lenders do not deem to be creditworthy.
Among this figure are over 11m self-employed people, 4m young adults and 1m legal immigrants, along with people automatically deemed not creditworthy who actually are.
Aire presents a new way to assess and re-score these profiles. Its algorithms and techniques emulate human decision making to power credit decisions that better serve consumers from all backgrounds and boost acceptance rates to financial products. Aire’s ‘new world reality’ approach to credit scoring is leading a technology-led evolution in the financial services sector, and has already earned the company a number of accolades including being named one of Forbes’s top five European startups to watch.
Why We Invested
Aire: how data and algorithms are helping to modernize credit scoring
We at White Star Capital hold a strong belief that the vast amounts of open and proprietary data sources combined with advanced analytical methods can help create insights and value across a multitude of verticals, and in the financial world this also applies to the ability to better measure and determine financial risk at at the atomic level of each and every individual consumer, rather than at a fictitious aggregated pool that gets grouped into a life-impacting FICO score bucket.
Read the postIn the News
Aire Launches Pulse to Help Underwriters During COVID-19
At its core, Pulse is a scalable communications tool. It enables lenders to collect current information from customers about their changing financial circumstances while maintaining fair and FCA-compliant account handling. The tool enables lenders to reach out to their existing borrowers via SMS and email to conduct an Interactive Virtual Interview (IVI) to gather information regarding disposable income levels and risk of financial difficulty.