We talk to William Verhelle, CEO and founder of the QuickFi® platform by Innovation Finance USA LLC.
William Verhelle: “QuickFi fills a gap between banks and small business borrowers”
Congratulations on being highly commended for the best use of IT for lending! Can you tell us about your service? What are some of its best features?
QuickFi fills a gap between banks and small business borrowers. QuickFi eliminates loan officers and other salespeople in favour of an entirely new borrower self-service experience.
Banks and equipment finance companies currently have no way to quickly and efficiently deliver capital to finance new business equipment in millions of creditworthy small and medium businesses (SMBs) acquiring seeking to grow and expand. QuickFi solves this long-standing problem.
QuickFi gives banks and commercial finance company partners advanced loan origination and servicing capabilities not available elsewhere. SMB borrowers use QuickFi to obtain business equipment loans ranging from $5,000 to $5,000,000 each.
Creditworthy businesses use QuickFi to access low, fixed-rate financing with no fees or hidden costs in minutes – not days or weeks.
QuickFi is better for the banks too. The QuickFi platform costs one-fifth the cost of the existing bank lending model. Banks can pass part of the savings on to creditworthy small business borrowers in the form of lower rates.
QuickFi simultaneously reduces costs, simplifies and accelerates the process, and dramatically improves borrower satisfaction.
Can you tell me how the solution is set up?
After the one-time user authentication and onboarding process, the three-minute QuickFi financing process is initiated and completed by the borrower (without lender involvement, unless requested by the borrower) in three simple steps.
Take a look at the QuickFi platform in a live demonstration in front of over 1,200 viewers at Finovate in NYC in October of 2021.
After creating an account, authenticating the user, establishing a credit line, and completing a term loan (all in under ten minutes), account servicing, reporting, early payoff capabilities, and 24/7 chat and telephone support are available to the borrower through QuickFi. You can view more here.
The QuickFi platform is also fully integrated with global manufacturer sales and distribution systems to serve the needs of global, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).
Finally, QuickFi is fully integrated into manufacturer web sales sites, enabling round-the-clock, instant financing of web-based equipment sales. Click here to learn more.
How did the solution come about?
QuickFi’s founders previously owned and led one of the most successful finance companies in the US. After a large global bank purchased the business, the founders created QuickFi to create an entirely new equipment finance business model.
In 2018, the founders began imagining how emerging technologies could empower an entirely new business. Facial recognition, drivers’ licence authentication, artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, and other mobile technologies were all emerging and enabling new ways to conduct business.
QuickFi’s founders believed that these technologies, with exponentially advancing price-performance, were likely to make new business models possible and that they would dramatically improve convenience, borrower transparency, and the customer experience.
The founders started with QuickFi and business equipment finance because new business equipment is a critical component of the US economy. Inefficient processes used by banks and finance companies dramatically increase the cost of financing for creditworthy small businesses while needlessly raising costs for banks.
QuickFi was imagined, developed, tested, and refined in 2018 and 2019 to remove borrower friction and costs from this critical capital flow to growing small businesses, which power the US economy.
In 2020, the QuickFi platform, incorporating AI, blockchain, facial recognition, and drivers’ licence authentication technologies, began serving individual SMB borrowers.
Partially due to the emergence of COVID-19, rapid digitisation became necessary to conduct business in a touchless environment. QuickFi was the only 100% digital borrower self-service platform.
In 2021, QuickFi entered business equipment financing partnerships with several global equipment manufacturers selling equipment to SMB borrowers throughout the US.
QuickFi now provides 50-state, term, secured, equipment financing for Johnson Controls (US), Atlas Copco (Europe), SANY (Asia), Juniper Networks (US), Essentium (US), Busch Vacuum (Europe), and others.
In 2022, QuickFi will begin serving bank partners with a white-label version of its QuickFi business equipment financing platform.
We have a measurable review process that is offered to every borrower after every transaction, you can read the Trustpilot reviews here.
QuickFi eliminates loan officers and other salespeople in favour of an entirely new borrower self-service experience
QuickFi currently has no loan losses and no accounts over 60 days past due (as of the end of December 2021). QuickFi has experienced no fraud losses.
Although not currently required by law in the US, QuickFi discloses all-inclusive interest rates to business borrowers on the mobile app’s home screen. The low, single-digit interest rates remain fixed for the life of each loan.
Account data, transaction history, reporting, amortisation schedules, live technical and customer support are accessible to the borrower through the QuickFi mobile app, 24/7/365.
Additionally, the QuickFi mobile app may be used as an extension of QualiFi. QualiFi enables equipment dealers and manufacturers to stage equipment transactions before prompting their customers to log into the QuickFi mobile app to complete the loan transaction.
The QuickFi mobile app is available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
How do you plan to develop the service over the coming year?
In 2022, QuickFi will begin serving banks as well as manufacturing captive finance companies.
QuickFi will continue to develop additional borrower capabilities and features. We are launching a repeat business program for existing borrowers called, QuickFi PRIME. We continue to foster a brand that stands for transparency and trust.
QuickFi has registered its trademark and has filed patent applications in over 20 countries. In addition to entering foreign markets, we believe the platform has the potential to efficiently support adjacent financial products, including dealer finance, flooring, receivables finance, and business lines of credit.
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