Brisbane-based fintech Jacaranda Finance moves into prime lending space

After making a mark in the sub-prime lending space since its founding in 2013, Brisbane-based fintech Jacaranda Finance is extending its expertise to a new cohort of borrowers.

Known for its quick, online personal loans backed by data technology and careful attention to compliance, Jacaranda Finance has now moved into the prime lending arena.

The company's head of growth Kurt Bornhutter says the decision comes from not only a desire to offer personal loans to a full spectrum of borrowers, but increase its relevance in the fast-evolving sector for more highly rated clients.

"Having operated in the sub-prime lending space for seven years, we've noticed an increase in clean credit borrowers seeking an alternative to traditional options," says Bornhutter.

"These borrowers are eager for ease and speed, with Jacaranda able to transfer funds within the same day as applying for most customers.

"With our new prime loan products, we are now able to offer competitive personal loans to this new customer base."

Bornhutter explains the company's mission has always been to give Australians an equal opportunity to access finance.

"Financial inclusion has always been something that we pride ourselves on," he says.

"We've been able to offer consumers, who normally would have been turned away by traditional lenders, the opportunity to apply for a suitable loan product."

He notes other lenders tend to rely heavily on credit scores to determine an applicant's eligibility, but this often fails to consider the full picture of an applicant.

Founded by Daniel Wessels, who won the Brisbane Young Entrepreneur Award in the Finance category last year in recognition of his success, Jacaranda Finance has built a proprietary decision engine aimed at giving applicants who are able to pay back loans a better chance. 

"This platform, fuelled by machine learning algorithms built upon an expansive data model, has allowed our assessment team to offer a service unlike any other. We use thousands of data points to determine the affordability of our online loans, each applicant is able to be carefully assessed," says Bornhutter.

"In particular, Jacaranda utilises bank statements, credit bureau, application, and socio-economic data to build our scoring models. This enables us to get a better picture of an applicant's situation than any one piece of data alone.

"The exciting part however is that this suite of processes and procedures is constantly evolving, leading to an ever-improving experience for our customers. This is quite clearly the differentiator and sets us apart from the competition."

This article is sponsored content in partnership with Jacaranda Finance.

Business News Australia