Toronto’s Uplinq has secured a USD $3.5 million pre-seed funding round led by N49P and Surface Ventures alongside a veritable ‘who’s who’ list of leading individual Fintech investors.
Uplinq is a global credit assessment platform for small business lenders. Through billions of unique and validated data signals beyond traditional credit indicators, they provide lenders confidence to make the most accurate decisions possible.
The company’s technology has powered over USD $1.4 Trillion in underwritten loans since its inception. Uplinq will use the investment to further its commitment to help banks and lenders deliver financial inclusion for their small business customers across the globe.
Uplinq launched its operations at the beginning of 2022, following a long planning cycle. The company’s founder and CEO, Ron Benegbi, is a serial entrepreneur now working on his fifth startup. Previously, Ron served as co-founder and President of Railz.ai.
Similarly, Uplinq’s co-founder, Patrick Reily, is a 30-year financial services veteran who has held senior positions with some of the world’s largest financial institutions. Patrick previously led the development of North American products at Equifax.
Speaking about his business journey, Ron Benegbi commented: “As an immigrant to Canada in the 1970’s, I watched my parents struggle to make a living as small business owners. We were very fortunate that one bank manager took a ‘flyer’ on my dad when he applied for a loan, even though he made it clear that the application did not meet the bank’s lending criteria. Most small business owners are not nearly as fortunate as this, which is why I started Uplinq.”
The pre-seed funding round will be deployed immediately to help scale Uplinq’s operations across the globe. Additionally, Uplinq will use the funding to further refine its solution. This update will allow the company to provide even more precise and predictive insights within the credit-decisioning process, empowering lenders to understand the financial performance of small businesses like never before.
Alongside N49P and Surface Ventures, Uplinq’s pre-seed funding round also includes participation from MoVi Partners, Impulsum Ventures, Magic Fund, Assure Syndicates, and the DVC Syndicate. Additionally, several notable fintech executives participated in the raise, including: the former President of Experian Consumer Services, co-founder at SoFi, former CIO and Treasurer at JPMorgan Chase, former Head of Risk at Scotiabank, and the former CTO at FIS.
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