Rapid Finance Lending Technology Solution

Transcription

Jordan: Hello and welcome everybody to the Beyond Banks podcast. This is where we talk to leaders that are transforming small business funding across all of the nation with all different kinds of technology. I'm your host, Jordan Hanson. And today I would like to introduce Preethi, vice president of client solutions at Rapid Finance, who is spearheading their transformation from an 18 year veteran, small business lender into a technology enterprise, offering loan origination systems to other lenders. You'll discover how Rapids experience processing 400 billion in SBA COVID loans catalyze their technology pivot. Why their partnership with LoanPro creates a seamless end to end lending solution and how their modular plug and play approach is designed for lenders who don't want to rebuild their entire tech stack.

Jordan: Hello everyone and welcome. We're here today with Preethi from Rapid Finance in charge of client solutions. I'm really excited to have a chance to speak with her and learn more about their decision to partner recently with LoanPro, but looking to partner with other people as well. Uh, Preethi, can you just take a few minutes and introduce us to you?

Preethi: Yeah, absolutely. Great to meet you at your podcast here, Jordan. So I'm Preethi. I'm the vice president here of client solutions at Rapid. I manage our client relationships and product strategy for Rapid. I also manage a go to market for our newest business line, Rapid Enterprise. I come from a background in banking and finance, and I've done, you know, I've led product for different financial institutions in the past. I've been with Rapid for three and a half years, and I'm very excited for this transformation for Rapid.

Jordan: And I would like to, as we talk more about this, I'm curious, specifically, we saw the news article where you have partnered up recently with Loan Pro, and we're going to get into that, and I want to know more about that, that decision, and what took you there. But kind of what's underlying is like, that's what you said, that Rapid enterprise. Can you talk more about what took you toward Rapid Enterprise and why?

Preethi: Yeah, absolutely. So Rapid Finance, as you know, we've been doing small business lending. We've done that for 18 years now. We started in 2005, so almost 19 years now. And, you know, we've been helping small businesses across America in that space. Right over the years as we have been running our lending business. One of the things we have focused on internally is building out our technology and we've always built our technology to be very modular and flexible with the thought that at some point we will, offer this to other enterprises.

Preethi: So that was always in the back of our mind, what pivoted us. So in April of 2020, when SBA launched the COVID IDLE program, they needed a partner that would be able to operate at their scale, be flexible, be agile, and stand up something for them really quickly, actually within a week, and they tapped upon RAPID. We made a copy of our system hosted by RAPID. Did it in a private cloud environment for them and put their rules in and we were up and running. So, and we helped them give out 400 billion in loans and grants to small businesses across America. And that I think was our transformative phase.

Preethi: Uh, so it was clear to me, I had joined RAPID actually to lead that SBA initiative. So I had led that for two and a half years and it was clear to me and to our executive team here that we're at the brink of that journey. So we launched RAPID Enterprise. We now have three products and we continue to evolve our rapid enterprise. Our goal is to build lending as a service ecosystem, right? So we have a loan origination product, which we'll talk about today, Decisionaire. We have a fraud prevention platform. It's an AI powered platform, Rapid Links, which we'll touch upon, hopefully. And we have another RegTech product, SMB Disclosure, that we offer to alternate lenders in this space that have to now follow all the state regulations that are coming out.

Jordan: Yeah. And that's a lot. Now, as you have those three different products. It's hard to focus on so many different products. So how do you decide where you want to put your time? All of those, I hear those and I'm like, oh that sounds cool. Oh, that one sounds, like they all sound good. Especially for the space that we're in. Which is commonly the alternative finance space. Lending, all that area. I know all the new regulations are confusing. So the fact that you have a product there is exciting. How do you choose where to focus?

Preethi: Yeah, so overall, it's all part of who we are, right? So we've started out as lenders. We've used a lot of this ourselves. We have to build some of this for ourselves, like that disclosure product. We had to do it for ourselves. We have to comply with the same regulations. So, you know, as a lender, we have to do it and it just makes it easier for us then, you know, to just package that up, put it in an API, cloud environment and allow other enterprises to benefit from that as well.

Preethi: So for the most part, that's how we evolve, right? A lot of it is we have to do this for ourselves. We know how to do this. We obviously have a great team that is, you know, loves to collaborate is, you know, loves to be on that brink of innovation. Of all the ideas we picked, there are so many that more than we're leaving behind. So trust me, we, yep, exactly. There's more to come. It's a very energetic team here at rapid, that helps us move along.

Jordan: That's great. So let's talk about Decisionaire, especially kind of what took you toward the partnership with loan pro. Um, I'd love to hear more about that path.

Preethi: Absolutely. So Decisionaire, as we touched upon, it's a loan origination system, right? It's a very modern loan origination system where, you know, we are trying to empower lenders to bring their loan origination to the next level, to the digital era. When I think of a loan origination system, there are a few things I think about, right? So I think about, hey, what does that customer experience look like when a customer is applying for a loan and we've taken that apart and said, all right, a customer could apply for a loan online or, you know, somewhere else. And so we've opened up an API or, you know, can go to a store before the lenders that have retail locations. So we have a way for lenders to take applications in an employee portal or, you know, open it up on an iPad and take it.

Preethi: So we've kind of broken it down and said, okay, what are all those things. And then how do I make this so that a lender can have a custom experience, right? So there, so it's all white label, very customizable, very flexible. You define your fields. We then go into what is the other aspect of modernization is automations, right? So everybody is looking to automate their flows. Self serve, establish workflows, and basically optimize their resources here and, you know, make that funnel experience that much better for their customer.

Preethi: So we have all of those. It's all configurable components. Lenders can automate workflows, they can automate decisions, they can automate offers. It's all data driven. We have a number of third party integrations that will allow them to make those decisions. Made it very flexible. Right. And, and then, you know, same thing with their closing, which is, you know, also they can have their custom contracts, they can have their closing steps, they can have stipulations to closing and so on.

Preethi: So we've built this platform, which was an end to end loan origination platform. And we built it so it can then plug and play. And that's been our vision for a rapid enterprise, right? All of our technology is built so it can plug and play into your ecosystem. So as a lender, you don't have to make that difficult choice. Hey, do I have to move everything? How do I make this work? We've made it easy for you. If you want just the loan origination system, you don't want the fraud module, you don't have to use it. You can plug in your own. You wanna plug it in, plug in your own CRM system, you can do that. And you can plug in your own LMS.

Preethi: So that's how we've built our technology is so that it is modular and composable and it can plug and play. And that brings us to Loan Pro. So we talked to loan Pro first, I think late last year, and similar to us, they are API driven, very flexible, you know, they are very configurable. They offer the, you know, a very similar modern experience to their customers. So it was basically it was a no brainer, right, that we would partner with them.

Preethi: And the way I think about it, for the loan pro partnership, I think there are four key factors that drove this and that continue to drive this. The first one's obviously the technology we talked about, we have our own unique strengths. And the good thing is we focused on our strengths, right? We've built that loan origination system. And I'm biased, but I'll tell you, I believe we've built it well, right, to cater to all the different things for a loan origination system. And they've done the same thing with a loan management system. They can do servicing, they have a payments module, they have collections module. So we are kind of, you know, the two pieces of the puzzle. We fit together really well and bring our own unique capabilities. So I obviously, you know, that's the first factor.

Preethi: The second factor is basically our client and market demand, right? Typically, when you look at clients, they're trying to build that end to end lending system, right? These two have to coexist. And a lot of clients, what they struggle with is if they go and purchase two different solutions from the market and they are having to put together, then there is, you know, there's a lot of angst in, okay, how do I make this talk to the other, and, you know, what's getting left behind and all of that. Now we've made this, so it's like two in a box. It's very seamless starting from when you engage with us and you do implementation to, you know, the actual operations of it to support, right? Everything, and we make it really seamless for the client.

Preethi: Uh, so at the end of the loan origination, we'll onboard that loan into the loan management system. We'll send that disbursement call to LoanPro, it'll just work it up and then, you know, they don't have to worry about it. It's not like there's two systems at all, right? It's just one system talking to each other.

Preethi: So the third factor is obviously our shared vision. Like I said, our vision has been, you know, to meet our client needs where they are. That's what we pride ourselves at Rapid. LoanPro seems to think the same way, you know, they've also done the exact same thing. They've built everything modular. They're, you know, built everything flexible. They like to work with their clients the same way as we do. So that's, you know, that, that vision and culture has obviously brought us together.

Preethi: The last thing is the people. I've been working with the loan pro folks, Jordan, for the past few months, very enthusiastic, very collaborative group of people. I'm privileged to work with that team. And I feel like, you know, both teams get along really well. They work really well together. And then that's, I think, going to be a great factor for this partnership.

Jordan: Oh, that's great. Now the partnership makes sense to me completely because of all the things you just stated, but they are an LMS. Loan management system.

Preethi: System.

Jordan: And so they're having customers, funders, lenders, people that are coming on their platform to use it. Do you ever see yourself also selling to funders directly? Someone that maybe they're already tech forward, they want to, they already have their in house LMS or something else, Salesforce, let's say. Would this be something that you think Decisioneer would fit in well with that as well? Or do you typically want to partner with other software than tech companies?

Preethi: Right. So we, we don't have an LMS in the market right now. Our system is designed so it can work, like I said, with other ecosystems that that the lender has. It's all API driven, right? So we can easily plug into whatever the lender has in their ecosystem. That is the design. We offer our suggestions from our experience, but at the end of the day, our goal is to help that client be successful and make whatever is the best decision for them. And we'll partner with them either way.

Jordan: Yeah. Okay. So in the future, let's say you said five years from now, the future of rapid enterprise, and maybe this is something that was tough to answer, but do you see a majority of your customers being lenders? Or would you see it more being someone like Loanpro?

Preethi: Our clients are going to be more always the lenders.

Jordan: Yeah. Right. Let's say, do they typically go directly to you or do they go through someone like Loanpro? I guess that's the question.

Preethi: Um, both. I would say it's both. So both models work. So we, so today we have clients that come to us. And if we can meet all of their needs, we'll reach out to our partner ecosystem and try to meet that need and bring, build that solution for them. And LoanPro does the same thing, right? We're always going to have clients that use only Decisioneer and don't use LoanPro. LoanPro is going to have clients that don't pick Decisioneer and use LoanPro and that's okay. That's you know how this partnership will work, but yeah, we'll have both avenues in terms of how we get inbound clients.

Jordan: Yeah, and like you said at the beginning rapid finance in 19 years. Did you say that's how long rapid finance has been doing in the lending for 19 years? And there's certainly I feel like they're you're one of the most well known most respected. Well, you're one of the big big players for sure in the space and this is a new side. You said it's been in the last three years. So probably a small percentage of revenue and just business in general just because rapid finance is already so established. There's so much leverage and scale when you have software and you can sell the other people in this space. I don't know what the goals are. This is something you could even answer but do you foresee a world where it was like a revenue or business size 50 50 or do you feel like rapid finance will always be the kind of the bigger side of the business or is that even too tough to tell right now?

Preethi: It's tough to tell. Yeah, sure, of course. But our goal is obviously to get there, get this business line up there with Rapid Finance. The Rapid Finance is obviously, you know, the much bigger business line today. We gain a lot of expertise and experience from Rapid Finance and I think that helps us at Rapid Enterprise. You never want to give that up because it just makes you be able to build better products.

Jordan: Exactly, exactly. And you know, there are a lot of synergies, right? For example, one of the things we're exploring is getting deeper into embedded finance and that kind of synergizes both. They don't have to be separate as far as we are concerned, right? It is one company. So, you know, yeah, our goal is to build rapid enterprise as big as rapid enterprise. Actually, if you take out SBA is less than a year old. So, so it's very, very new, you know, if I had a crystal ball, I'll tell you, I would like for it to say that we'll grow as big as Rapid Finance.

Jordan: Preethi, I really appreciate your time. This has been really great information. Like I said, I have always, I know some of the people over Rapid Finance, great people, really good to work with. I've always had a pleasure meeting conferences and anything else. So it's been a pleasure. I always love to learn more about this. I appreciate your time.

Preethi: Thank you. Thanks for having me, Jordan.

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