The economic uncertainty caused by the pandemic of the past year has led to many predict that the rate of default on credit for consumers will remain in a downward trend until 2021. A company that has created a platform that will assist consumers in resolving this issue has announced a funding announcement in response to the increasing interest in its services.Symend that creates behavioral analytics that work with products for customer engagement to assist customers in identifying customers who have difficulty paying their bills and suggest ways to pay to prevent from going into default it has received $33 million in financing.
The funds are an extension of its Series B that was completed in the month of May in the previous year and brings the total amount of it to $95million and well over 100 million dollars for Calgary-based startup Calgary, Canada startup since its inception in 2016.
Inovia Capital is at the forefront of this latest injection of capital Inovia Capital is the main investor, and other investors are not are also involved.
Symend has not disclosed its value, however Hanif Joshaghani who is Symend’s CEO who co-founded the business along with Tiffany Kaminsky (the startup’s CMO) and said it’s coming in the wake of an “massive uptick” among enterprises investing in solutions that assist customers who have difficulty to pay their bills.
“Customer uncertainty has been extremely high and service providers don’t have the capacity to support the mass volumes of inquiries in a way that effectively resonates with and empathetically reassures customers,” the CEO stated when he spoke to reporters.
The company has been working with customers in utilities, financial services, and media , and claims to have two-thirds the top telecommunications companies across North America, as well as a bank that is multinational, as clients.
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The year before, Symend said it was working towards having the 100 million clients (that is the customers of its customers) before the end of 2020 and we’re now seeking confirmation from the company that it has reached that milestone.
The aim of the company is twofold. It determines those customers who are having difficulty paying their bills, and provides them with options other than simple deferrals that for many people, simply avoid solving the problem.
However Symend’s solution does not only about avoiding delays Symend’s solutions seek to provide support and solutions to businesses that are witnessing an excessive amount of customers service operations.
However, deferrals remain an important factor: The majority of service providers have offered deferrals this year as a first step to avoid defaults. However, Joshaghani claimed that delay periods “can provide a false sense of financial security for customers.”
This, in part, is due to customers generally having to defer more than one charge.
A poll conducted by the company in July with 500 users, it found an increase of 27% in those who were behind on payment of bills between April until July 2020. people who were behind usually falling behind with an average of three or more bills. 55% of them were of them on at the very least 1 loan, 37% in debt on rent/mortgage 21% of them were in arrears on their credit line 52% of them were in arrears on credit card payment.
In the event of a missed payment, or any personal financial problems, are generally a result of more than just having no money. It could be job loss, illness or family problems and many other factors behind the reasons why someone might find himself or herself unable to pay the deadline for a bill.
Symend thus tries to adopt an approach that is sensitive to identifying the signs of problems and then addressing the root of them.
“Given that Symend’s primary goal is to save customers from negative outcomes, we deployed strategies with our clients to ensure customers felt supported and empowered to act and avoid bills piling up through the deferral period,” Joshaghani stated. “By providing customers with compassionate communication, self-service tools as well as flexible payment options Symend has enabled leading companies to give their customers a pleasant experience during an turbulent and uncertain period. Through empowering customers to take action using digital instruments, Symend alleviates pressure from busy call centers, boosts satisfaction of customers, decreases operational costs and helps customers pay off past due bills prior to them reaching collections.”
As we’ve already mentioned the Symend team is comprised of approximately 25% PhDs in behavioral science and PhDs, however it does not give a lot of details about how it functions or the method it employs in assessing the customers. It draws data from businesses themselves, and then combines it with resources from third parties (not like the data repository that many fintechs based on AI could employ to, for instance assess the eligibility of a customer to get a loan at the interest rate they want to charge).
Kaminsky says that the past year of operation was a time for the business to invest more investment in their algorithms as well as analytics.
“Using our behaviorally informed algorithms, Symend can identify and distinguish between key variations in customer behavior to personalize and optimize interactions based on the unique preferences of the individual,” she explained. “Symend’s AI/ML model takes this one level further and combines the insights from customer interactions with previous information on the actions that were taken. These insights assist Symend identify the behavior and psychological traits to identify which methods of engagement will positively influence the way people behave.”
In order to determine the sentiment of customers and to further refine these strategies, she states that Symend employs NLP processing models that automatically classify sentiment in response to communication and in self-serve tools. “Our metrics are shaped with the end goal of building a consistently positive brand experience that extends far beyond past due bills, which is why our AI/ML model uses sentiment analysis and engagement scoring,” she added. “This ultimately ensures that communications resonate with the customer’s unique and evolving needs, creating a consistently positive experience that retains customers.”
The company will utilize the money to continue to hire specifically internationally, with a particular focus on expanding operations into Latin Americas and Asia-Pacific regions. Additionally, it will invest in expanding its product offerings to include methods for retaining customers and acquiring them as well as investing in expanding its products to help customers avoid debts that are due to.
“We are big believers in Symend’s mission to add lasting value to enterprises, by helping their customers avoid collections,” said Dennis Kavelman, partner at Inovia Capital in an announcement. “Their strategy is distinctive and efficient because it blends data science and behavioral science to create a customized approach to each customer. With this funding, Symend is well funded to carry out its strategy of expanding globally and also to collaborate with major companies across a variety of sectors.”