Ixpandit is a fintech created by Matías and Tomás Friedberg that has its focus on the digitalization of traditional businesses and proposes new ways to improve the relationship with the end user. Its two main products are Grouit, which aims at financing SMEs and Adelantos.com.ar a service that provides cash quickly and swiftly.
Matías Friedberg, co-founder of Ixpandit commented,”We started Ixpandit ten years ago and at the beginning we mixed technology with traditional financial business. We used ways to bring users to traditional finance companies and there the company became very knowledgeable about consumer credit business. That’s why our first product, Adelantos.com.ar, started working three years ago”.
Personal loans are short-term and funding is almost instantaneous. “We fund in 6 seconds from the moment the person gives their OK until the money is in the bank” says Friedberg.
He also remarks, “With Adelantos.com.ar we understood how fundamental it was to be able to maintain a balance between the knowledge of financial business, especially in a developing country like Argentina, and its mix with technology where there are elements of financial inclusion and where it is very important to understand how you can reach the consumer in a different way ”
Matías Friedberg says that the company had a very good year with an average growth of 15% per month and today they are processing between 20 and 25 thousand credits per month between Gruoit and Adelantos.
In both products, the company has around 60% to 70% return rate, i.e. customers that once took a loan and return to take another one.
In Grouit, companies that request a credit are scored through non-traditional sources of information. Through API connections they can obtain information from Mercado Libre, AFIP, Todo Pago, Increase and different sources.
“We observe that the banking system in general focuses on traditional variables to evaluate the possibility of granting credits to a person or a SME, that is through Veraz and BCRA. We understand that there is a whole world of information going around that is very important and all from non-traditional sources of information. Besides seeing through Veraz how much people earn and where they work, the company adds information from social networks, seeing that they go on vacation twice a year, how much time they spend on the web, what type of cell phone they are using to connect to get the credit, and it all adds up to the moment of the decision to make it more holistic “says Friedberg. The company calls this process Data Science.
For Friedberg, the introduction of technology into the financial market was a bit slow “there are many players, among which are banks and traditional finance companies, who still find it hard to move away from their classic branch business”.
He concludes, “What excites us is not necessarily the financial part of the business, which of course is tied to the economy and obviously will have its ups and downs, but the new way of connecting with the customer and that is technology disrupting the financial business and it is totally independent from whether the business is going well or badly. Fintech is the second digital revolution and we understand that the economic swings can be circumstantial, but the digital transformation is here to stay. ”
