Persistence, Progress, and Point-of-Rejection
Are We There Yet?
We have a feeling of a deja vu as one day runs into another. How about you? Not being able to interact in person seems odd, but this is a new reality for everyone, and it may last for quite some time. Daily video chats have proven to be an effective way to stay aligned and connected as a team so far. Frequent virtual reference checks with founders and clients help us to make up for the inability to connect in person.
We continue to invest and find many interesting companies from our network and by leveraging XPLR's AI on the Cogo Labs data. The Vestigo Ventures team is very excited to add Curu as our 18th investment in Fund I. This is the first enterprise SaaS company we're backing based on its discovery in the data. The evolution of our ability to detect FinTech companies at earlier stages with increased precision is encouraging. Finding a promising B2B software company based on web activity is difficult (even with 15 petabytes of data) but is a testament to our commitment to modernizing the way seed-stage investing is done.
We would like to thank Frazer Anderson for his work on making these improvements for us. It is certainly one of the reasons why his work was recognized at IEEE in December.
We chose to focus on AI in our May newsletter. It remains the most viable technology that our companies use to drive their results. They are automating processes to drive down costs for incumbents or to create delightul customer experiences (hopefully both). It never ceases to amaze us how a small number of world class talents can leverage cloud computing and open-source code to rapidly create new solutions for so many processes in financial services.
“Are we there yet?” refers to the day-to-day nature of our current world. We are certainly not there when it comes to AI. It is making great strides in its impact in FinTech, and we expect much more to come along the startup road.
—Dave & Mark
Envisions Interview
Persistence, Progress, and Point-of-Rejection
w/ David Potter, CEO at Curu Credit
New Portfolio Company
We are excited to announce that Curu Credit has joined the Vestigo Ventures family! They are our first B2B company found using XPLR. They are building a multi-channel SaaS platform to eliminate rejection for any purchase on the basis of credit (mortgages, leases, credit cards, etc). Curu's technology empowers their clients to hold onto their qualified applicants and uses AI to guide them through the path to approval.
David Potter, CEO, and Abb Kapoor, COO, met as randomly assigned freshmen roommates at the University of Maryland in 2014. David earned the full-ride "Gates” (as in Bill) Millennium Scholarship and was studying finance. Abb was on a full-ride scholarship from the University of Maryland studying computational finance.
In their second year, they were surprised by being rejected for off-campus housing by every single landlord they approached. Both had money and high earning potential but no credit history. This inspired them to become experts on the US credit system and create a credit consulting business for family and friends. Through persistent automation and software, Curu was born!
Be sure to check out the video interview of David Potter on the use of AI.
—Dave & Mark
AI Applications
We have been thinking about AI technology and its varied uses in our portfolio companies. Here is a short inventory of some of those applications in action.
TowerIQ has an application process automated for commercial P&C agents. It uses smart shortcuts involving AI to populate information on applications. TowerIQ also provides automation for agencies by allowing them to use easily customizable code that fits into their existing processes. This results in increased efficiency for brokers with no significant changes to their workflows.
Kingfield uses AI to read and act upon inquiries from its customers. Automation makes the process more efficient. The AI reads the email, and, if some key information is missing, it sends back a fully automated response asking for it. Once everything is in good order, it then fulfills a review of the request. This performs extremely well in early testing.
Cushion, found in XPLR, uses AI to keep lean staff while fighting for consumers' financial health. Its technology can spot a problem and offer the best way to request help for resolving a problem at the consumer’s bank. They have saved significant amounts of money for their clients often with no human interaction needed with the bank. Sort of a funny situation where we see it as - “Can your chatbot at the bank work this out with my AI?”
While there are many others worth mentioning, this gives you an idea of the impressive work being done by our portfolio companies.
—Ian, Mike and Frazer
Portfolio Updates
Good Financial Decisions with Cushion
Congratulations to Cushion for being featured the New York Times "Track Where Your Money Goes" article as one of the applications that can help you to manage your finances better! Let Cushion negotiate the bank fees and get refunds for you, so you can jump-start your savings game now!
By
New Release for LifeYield
LifeYield certainly recognizes the importance of engaging with clients and incorporating the feedback into their new release to add value for their customers. Two of their five new platform-enhancements embody this principle.
Steve Zuschin
Vestmark and Redi2
Another great partnership for Vestmark! Now VestmarkONE clients will be able to access Redi2 Wealth manager scalable billing solutions. Redi2 helps to analyze and manage fee revenues and even supports customized payout scenarios. The ability to seamlessly set up and run billing will give Vestmark more time to focus on what they do best - improving investment and financial outcomes for their clients!
Interesting Reads
Stephen Diorio
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