Frederick Lavoie: So Flinks, we started in 2016. So we're a 22,
23 months old company. And we're an open banking enabler for
companies. So we allow users of financial apps, whether in
banking, or in FinTech to connect their bank account to
the app they're choosing.
Speaker 1: Incredible. And where are you guys based?
Frederick Lavoie: So yeah, we're based out of Montreal. So all of
our development team is there. And we have also a business
development team in Toronto.
Speaker 1: Great, great, I'll check the next question to you.
So what are some of the major challenges or problems that you
face within your company?
Miles Schwartz: So major challenges we faced is scaling.
So even though we've done a really good job, we, as Fred
said to be commercialized just over a year ago, and we already
have over 40 people at the company, but keeping the
traction going at the same rate, same level and constantly
innovating, is not really a challenge, which it's more of a,
something that comes along with having a business that grows as
quickly as Flinks has.
Speaker 1: Awesome. What really excites you about your business?
Frederick Lavoie: The, the the potential, the untapped
potential of a couple of elements in the in the lending
space, specifically in, in finance, in general, but in the
lending space, specifically, where there's, there's not a lot
of usage of machine learning and artificial intelligence, a lot
of companies are exploring it. And a lot of companies are
talking about it, but not many entities are actually using
machine learning and artificial intelligence in production for
to enhance their services. So in lending, it's, it's, it's very,
it's also something that that it's a bit new and larger
entities are yet to really deploy it at scale. And so
that's, that's one of the two main things that Flinks is
tapping on is, is bringing machine learning to, to lending
and to production to have it live with, with with loan
decisions being enhanced by that. And the the other aspect
that's very exciting is a lot of the lending, historically has
been based in terms of risk has been based on credit bureau
data, we're talking about consumer lending mostly. And
there's a huge amount of data that typically is called
alternative data that is not used by most lenders to, to make
decisions. So there's a lot of improvements that can be made
with leveraging alternative data, we're talking about mostly
transactional data and behavioral profiles that we can
access from having access to the to the bank transactions, which
is what Flinks does, as well as machine learning. So these two
combined are very, very exciting for the next couple years in
that in terms of innovation.
Speaker 1: That's great. Would you like to add on anything? Or
respond to the question?
Miles Schwartz: No, so he touched on it. So it's just
really exciting that we're able to leverage the data, we have to
build AI machine learning tools to build better analytics and
decision for lenders. And we're, it's cool to be a fintech that
helps other fintechs thrive and not compete against other
fintechs as we're an enabler and giving better decisioning and
onboarding for all fintechs especially for lenders.
Speaker 1: Great answer. Okay. Perfect. Do you have any goals
that you'd like to talk about? Long term? Aided that's a
broaden question.
Frederick Lavoie: Yeah. So in terms of if we formulate that,
in terms of vision, the vision for us is to, to accelerate the
usage of machine learning and lending. And fundamentally,
there's innovate innovating aspects to allowing companies to
access user data, which is a which is the core product that
Flinks has built initially was was that the the ability of
users to quickly in one click synchronize their their bank
info to the app, so it simplifies the experience. And
so the story goals, yeah, the goals. So. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: Or the vision.
Frederick Lavoie: Yeah, well, it's in terms of vision, which
is a I think it's an touching on. So that's, that's the first
sort of first phase for us was to, to distribute that ability
to as many companies as we could. And so in less than two
years, we've managed to deploy our technology in more than 200
fintechs and banks alike, and most recently, we've worked
with, with banks more. Hey.
Speaker 1: Okay okay, feel free?
Frederick Lavoie: Yeah, sure. So so to get back to the to the
vision, the big the bigger goals for us is to, to continue to
deploy that. It's a bit of a foundation for innovation to
enable access to user data. And as well as to deploy the
enhancement of, of the data to as many entities in lending and
lending in Canada and in North America.
Speaker 1: That's great. And just to end off, if there's any
final thoughts or one underlying principle that you would
describe to a layperson about your company, what would you
like to say to one person or to the general public layperson?
Yeah.
Frederick Lavoie: Yeah, sure. So the one thing that they can
expect from finance and finance, finance is typically is boring.
It's like most people don't like finance, when they don't have to
think about it. And the future of finance is more of that is
more of a better finance, easily accessible. So better products
and, and more and more simple products. So in that, in that
comes from from every aspect of the financial industry, bank and
fintechs alike, so the the, for consumers, it's quite, it's
quite exciting. What's what's ahead in terms of the quality
and the, how easy the products are, are going to be to use.
Miles Schwartz: Sure, yeah, just to say like, it's gonna be so
frictionless, like people say, like, the thing that hit them,
like they hate you on the bank is more than they hate going to
the dentist. That's all going to change with all the innovations
that are happening in fintech and instant decisioning. Instant
adjudication, no more walking into branches. So the entire
financial landscape is changing. And we're a big part of that and
we're happy to be a part of that and we're happy to see the
evolution happen and be part of it.