Informed

Informed operates as a specialized technology provider for financial institutions, focusing on the automation of loan verification processes. The company was founded in April 2016 by Justin Wickett and Magdalena Yesil with a mission to enhance lending speed and financial inclusivity while mitigating risk and fraud. Wickett's background in product management at Credit Karma and Lyft exposed him to the challenges faced by applicants, particularly gig economy workers, whose income was difficult for traditional lenders to verify, sparking the idea for the company.

The firm's core business revolves around providing turn-key AI and robotic process automation solutions to lenders. This technology performs real-time verification of income, assets, identity, residence, and insurance. The platform targets consumer lenders, including banks and credit unions, operating in markets such as auto loans, mortgages, personal loans, and credit card originations. Clients include major financial institutions like Ally Financial and Westlake Financial, with reports indicating seven of the top ten U.S. consumer lenders utilize its technology. The business model is structured as a Software as a Service (SaaS), where pricing is based on contract duration and usage volume.

Informed's product employs machine learning models trained on a vast dataset, including over 66 million records, to process hundreds of document types with what the company reports as 99% accuracy, a significant increase from manual review standards. The platform goes beyond simple optical character recognition (OCR) by using a knowledge graph and verticalized AI to validate data, calculate income according to each lender's specific policies, and detect fraudulent documents. This automation has facilitated the processing of over $125 billion in loan originations. In May 2021, the company secured $20 million in a Series A funding round co-led by Nyca Partners and US Venture Partners to support its expansion.

Keywords: loan verification, lending automation, financial technology, AI in finance, robotic process automation, consumer lending, auto finance, mortgage technology, fraud detection, income verification, asset verification, credit risk, digital transformation, document intelligence, machine learning, underwriting automation, loan origination system, RegTech, financial inclusion, data verification