1 00:00:05.279 --> 00:00:10.529 Frederick Lavoie: So Flinks, we started in 2016. So we're a 22, 2 00:00:10.889 --> 00:00:15.959 23 months old company. And we're an open banking enabler for 3 00:00:15.959 --> 00:00:20.279 companies. So we allow users of financial apps, whether in 4 00:00:20.279 --> 00:00:23.969 banking, or in FinTech to connect their bank account to 5 00:00:23.969 --> 00:00:25.949 the app they're choosing. 6 00:00:27.150 --> 00:00:29.160 Speaker 1: Incredible. And where are you guys based? 7 00:00:29.460 --> 00:00:31.860 Frederick Lavoie: So yeah, we're based out of Montreal. So all of 8 00:00:31.860 --> 00:00:34.770 our development team is there. And we have also a business 9 00:00:34.860 --> 00:00:36.180 development team in Toronto. 10 00:00:36.840 --> 00:00:39.720 Speaker 1: Great, great, I'll check the next question to you. 11 00:00:40.050 --> 00:00:43.410 So what are some of the major challenges or problems that you 12 00:00:43.410 --> 00:00:44.850 face within your company? 13 00:00:44.850 --> 00:00:44.900 Miles Schwartz: So major challenges we faced is scaling. 14 00:00:45.320 --> 00:00:46.670 So even though we've done a really good job, we, as Fred 15 00:00:46.670 --> 00:00:48.380 said to be commercialized just over a year ago, and we already 16 00:00:48.380 --> 00:00:49.970 have over 40 people at the company, but keeping the 17 00:00:49.970 --> 00:00:58.070 traction going at the same rate, same level and constantly 18 00:00:58.700 --> 00:01:05.030 innovating, is not really a challenge, which it's more of a, 19 00:01:05.390 --> 00:01:07.670 something that comes along with having a business that grows as 20 00:01:07.670 --> 00:01:08.810 quickly as Flinks has. 21 00:01:09.320 --> 00:01:12.710 Speaker 1: Awesome. What really excites you about your business? 22 00:01:12.710 --> 00:01:18.000 Frederick Lavoie: The, the the potential, the untapped 23 00:01:18.000 --> 00:01:22.320 potential of a couple of elements in the in the lending 24 00:01:22.320 --> 00:01:24.870 space, specifically in, in finance, in general, but in the 25 00:01:24.870 --> 00:01:31.200 lending space, specifically, where there's, there's not a lot 26 00:01:31.200 --> 00:01:34.380 of usage of machine learning and artificial intelligence, a lot 27 00:01:34.380 --> 00:01:38.910 of companies are exploring it. And a lot of companies are 28 00:01:38.910 --> 00:01:43.170 talking about it, but not many entities are actually using 29 00:01:43.170 --> 00:01:46.560 machine learning and artificial intelligence in production for 30 00:01:47.070 --> 00:01:52.230 to enhance their services. So in lending, it's, it's, it's very, 31 00:01:52.290 --> 00:01:56.640 it's also something that that it's a bit new and larger 32 00:01:56.640 --> 00:02:01.140 entities are yet to really deploy it at scale. And so 33 00:02:01.140 --> 00:02:04.650 that's, that's one of the two main things that Flinks is 34 00:02:04.650 --> 00:02:10.770 tapping on is, is bringing machine learning to, to lending 35 00:02:10.770 --> 00:02:17.160 and to production to have it live with, with with loan 36 00:02:17.190 --> 00:02:21.810 decisions being enhanced by that. And the the other aspect 37 00:02:21.810 --> 00:02:26.040 that's very exciting is a lot of the lending, historically has 38 00:02:26.040 --> 00:02:29.850 been based in terms of risk has been based on credit bureau 39 00:02:29.850 --> 00:02:34.050 data, we're talking about consumer lending mostly. And 40 00:02:34.650 --> 00:02:38.400 there's a huge amount of data that typically is called 41 00:02:38.430 --> 00:02:42.000 alternative data that is not used by most lenders to, to make 42 00:02:42.000 --> 00:02:46.170 decisions. So there's a lot of improvements that can be made 43 00:02:46.170 --> 00:02:48.810 with leveraging alternative data, we're talking about mostly 44 00:02:48.810 --> 00:02:53.580 transactional data and behavioral profiles that we can 45 00:02:53.910 --> 00:02:57.660 access from having access to the to the bank transactions, which 46 00:02:57.660 --> 00:03:00.660 is what Flinks does, as well as machine learning. So these two 47 00:03:00.660 --> 00:03:03.870 combined are very, very exciting for the next couple years in 48 00:03:03.870 --> 00:03:05.460 that in terms of innovation. 49 00:03:05.820 --> 00:03:08.670 Speaker 1: That's great. Would you like to add on anything? Or 50 00:03:08.670 --> 00:03:09.570 respond to the question? 51 00:03:09.600 --> 00:03:11.010 Miles Schwartz: No, so he touched on it. So it's just 52 00:03:11.010 --> 00:03:14.370 really exciting that we're able to leverage the data, we have to 53 00:03:14.880 --> 00:03:18.210 build AI machine learning tools to build better analytics and 54 00:03:18.210 --> 00:03:22.290 decision for lenders. And we're, it's cool to be a fintech that 55 00:03:22.290 --> 00:03:25.530 helps other fintechs thrive and not compete against other 56 00:03:25.530 --> 00:03:29.190 fintechs as we're an enabler and giving better decisioning and 57 00:03:29.190 --> 00:03:31.680 onboarding for all fintechs especially for lenders. 58 00:03:31.720 --> 00:03:35.740 Speaker 1: Great answer. Okay. Perfect. Do you have any goals 59 00:03:35.770 --> 00:03:40.780 that you'd like to talk about? Long term? Aided that's a 60 00:03:40.780 --> 00:03:41.650 broaden question. 61 00:03:41.680 --> 00:03:44.650 Frederick Lavoie: Yeah. So in terms of if we formulate that, 62 00:03:44.650 --> 00:03:50.500 in terms of vision, the vision for us is to, to accelerate the 63 00:03:50.530 --> 00:03:55.570 usage of machine learning and lending. And fundamentally, 64 00:03:55.570 --> 00:04:00.910 there's innovate innovating aspects to allowing companies to 65 00:04:00.910 --> 00:04:06.610 access user data, which is a which is the core product that 66 00:04:06.610 --> 00:04:10.210 Flinks has built initially was was that the the ability of 67 00:04:10.210 --> 00:04:13.420 users to quickly in one click synchronize their their bank 68 00:04:13.420 --> 00:04:17.140 info to the app, so it simplifies the experience. And 69 00:04:17.140 --> 00:04:26.560 so the story goals, yeah, the goals. So. I'm sorry. 70 00:04:26.650 --> 00:04:27.340 Speaker 1: Or the vision. 71 00:04:27.400 --> 00:04:31.210 Frederick Lavoie: Yeah, well, it's in terms of vision, which 72 00:04:31.210 --> 00:04:36.700 is a I think it's an touching on. So that's, that's the first 73 00:04:36.730 --> 00:04:40.930 sort of first phase for us was to, to distribute that ability 74 00:04:40.930 --> 00:04:43.780 to as many companies as we could. And so in less than two 75 00:04:43.780 --> 00:04:46.900 years, we've managed to deploy our technology in more than 200 76 00:04:47.470 --> 00:04:50.920 fintechs and banks alike, and most recently, we've worked 77 00:04:50.920 --> 00:04:53.380 with, with banks more. Hey. 78 00:05:05.410 --> 00:05:12.280 Speaker 1: Okay okay, feel free? 79 00:05:12.450 --> 00:05:15.390 Frederick Lavoie: Yeah, sure. So so to get back to the to the 80 00:05:15.390 --> 00:05:21.180 vision, the big the bigger goals for us is to, to continue to 81 00:05:21.180 --> 00:05:25.860 deploy that. It's a bit of a foundation for innovation to 82 00:05:25.920 --> 00:05:32.040 enable access to user data. And as well as to deploy the 83 00:05:32.040 --> 00:05:37.740 enhancement of, of the data to as many entities in lending and 84 00:05:37.740 --> 00:05:40.260 lending in Canada and in North America. 85 00:05:40.660 --> 00:05:44.230 Speaker 1: That's great. And just to end off, if there's any 86 00:05:44.230 --> 00:05:47.680 final thoughts or one underlying principle that you would 87 00:05:47.680 --> 00:05:50.740 describe to a layperson about your company, what would you 88 00:05:50.740 --> 00:05:55.450 like to say to one person or to the general public layperson? 89 00:05:55.480 --> 00:05:55.870 Yeah. 90 00:05:56.980 --> 00:06:00.460 Frederick Lavoie: Yeah, sure. So the one thing that they can 91 00:06:00.460 --> 00:06:03.370 expect from finance and finance, finance is typically is boring. 92 00:06:03.400 --> 00:06:06.370 It's like most people don't like finance, when they don't have to 93 00:06:06.370 --> 00:06:10.510 think about it. And the future of finance is more of that is 94 00:06:10.510 --> 00:06:16.450 more of a better finance, easily accessible. So better products 95 00:06:16.450 --> 00:06:22.420 and, and more and more simple products. So in that, in that 96 00:06:22.420 --> 00:06:26.440 comes from from every aspect of the financial industry, bank and 97 00:06:26.440 --> 00:06:30.730 fintechs alike, so the the, for consumers, it's quite, it's 98 00:06:30.730 --> 00:06:35.440 quite exciting. What's what's ahead in terms of the quality 99 00:06:35.440 --> 00:06:40.330 and the, how easy the products are, are going to be to use. 100 00:06:42.780 --> 00:06:44.775 Miles Schwartz: Sure, yeah, just to say like, it's gonna be so 101 00:06:44.818 --> 00:06:47.465 frictionless, like people say, like, the thing that hit them, 102 00:06:47.508 --> 00:06:50.198 like they hate you on the bank is more than they hate going to 103 00:06:50.241 --> 00:06:53.018 the dentist. That's all going to change with all the innovations 104 00:06:53.061 --> 00:06:55.751 that are happening in fintech and instant decisioning. Instant 105 00:06:55.794 --> 00:06:58.311 adjudication, no more walking into branches. So the entire 106 00:06:58.354 --> 00:07:01.174 financial landscape is changing. And we're a big part of that and 107 00:07:01.217 --> 00:07:03.777 we're happy to be a part of that and we're happy to see the 108 00:07:03.820 --> 00:07:05.339 evolution happen and be part of it.