Insider Brief
- Rich Data Co (RDC), an AI decisioning platform for banks, has raised $28 million (US$17.5m) in a Series B funding round led by Westpac and nCino, with plans to expand into North America and strengthen its global banking sector presence.
- RDC’s platform uses explainable AI to enhance banks’ understanding of borrower behaviour, improving lending decision accuracy and efficiency, and has already been implemented in major banks in Australia and New Zealand, including Westpac.
- The funding will support RDC’s ongoing growth and industry leadership in AI decisioning, with Westpac and nCino highlighting the strategic benefits of their investments in enhancing business lending offers and staying abreast of AI developments.
PRESS RELEASE — SYDNEY/November 29, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Rich Data Co (RDC) — a leading AI decisioning platform that helps banks make high-quality lending decisions efficiently and safely — has successfully raised $28 million (US$17.5m) in its Series B round.
The funding round was led by major Australian bank Westpac (ASX: WBC) and global leader in cloud banking nCino (NASDAQ: NCNO), and supported by a reinvestment from Australian funds management firm BMYG and new Singapore-based investor Octava Fund. The funds raised will be used to help accelerate RDC’s expansion into North America and grow its industry-leading position as an AI decisioning platform in the global banking sector.
Founded in Australia in 2016, RDC uses explainable AI to provide banks with deeper insight into borrower behaviour, enabling more accurate and efficient lending decisions to businesses. To date, RDC has helped major banks in Australia and New Zealand, notably Westpac’s Australian business lending operations, to leverage AI in accelerating lending coverage of its existing customers.
Over the past 18 months, RDC has been expanding into North America, and in late 2022, established a global resale agreement with nCino, which enables nCino’s business and commercial lending customers to enhance the lending process with AI decisioning and greater intelligence.
Ada Guan, CEO and co-founder of RDC, says: “With this investment we are strengthening our relationship with Westpac and deepening our partnership with nCino. Securing such a significant amount of investment within challenging fundraising conditions, speaks to the opportunity that Rich Data Co’s AI Decisioning Platform offers the industry, which is pleasingly being recognised by our investors. Now that the B round has closed, we can get on with doing what we love to do and that is disrupt current lending approaches and grow our industry leadership in the exciting AI Decisioning space. I am incredibly proud of our people and our growing team of industry and AI experts.”
Shane Howell, Managing Director Business Lending, Westpac, says: “At Westpac, our ambition is to enable Australian businesses to achieve their goals. We strive to support our customers with the right solutions and a seamless banking experience so they can focus on their business. Since January we have benefited from partnering with global innovator RDC, to enable faster decisions for customers by using RDC’s decisioning tool and advanced analytic techniques, meaning cash is in our customers hands quicker, particularly important in these economic times.”
Anthony Potts, Head of Strategic Investments, Westpac says: “Westpac’s investment in RDC reflects our strategy to pursue meaningful capability partnerships, investments and acquisitions. With the rapid evolution of AI, our strategic investment not only enhances our business lending offer but also allows us to stay close to global developments as RDC scales internationally.”
Davis Brannan, EVP of Ecosystem and Strategic Growth at nCino, says: “nCino is proud of its heritage in helping financial institutions transform and outperform. Partnerships are an important part of our business strategy as they help us innovate and deliver value to customers even more quickly. We see the technology from RDC supporting elements of our nIQ and intelligence capabilities, and we’re excited to strengthen our collaboration with this investment.”
About Rich Data Co
Rich Data Co (RDC) was founded in 2016 in Sydney Australia. RDC is driven to increase global access to inclusive, fair and sustainable credit. The RDC AI Decisioning platform provides lenders with deeper insight into borrower behaviour, enabling faster and more accurate decisions that empower confident lending to Business and SME lending segments. This next-generation platform enables lenders to more accurately access credit risk and predict future business performance to enable access to sustainable credit. www.richdataco.com
