Informed.IQ is a company that helps financial institutions fund more loans faster while reducing risk and fraud. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Informed.IQ’s Director of Lending Strategies Jessica Gonzalez.
Jessica Gonzalez’s Background
With over 15 years of experience in the financial services industry, including tenures at Santander Consumer USA and Visa, Gonzalez is the Director of Lending Strategies at Informed.IQ.
And Gonzalez told me that “over the last several years, it has become increasingly difficult for auto dealers and lenders to ensure financial inclusivity and fairness for car shoppers today by accurately calculating income. Using Informed applicants across the U.S. can have their incomes instantly and accurately calculated. This is especially important within communities of underrepresented minorities across varying income brackets. Fair income calculation regardless of employment situation and income variables common with today’s Americans should be a given.”
Favorite Memory
What has been Gonzalez’s favorite memory working for the company so far? Gonzalez shared:
“Getting to attend dozens of different events across the country in the auto, fintech, and credit union verticals, working in an incredibly fast-paced environment with the ability to pivot on a whim (albeit sometimes too quickly), and getting to work in gray areas to create unique product offerings/value propositions and increase capital for underserved communities.”
“Part of the nature of working at a ‘start-up’ is being able to learn and grow. I’ve been able to learn and work on different projects, and it has been an honor to work with such an especially experienced team!”
Core Products
What are Informed.IQ’s core products and features? Gonzalez explained:
“1.) Informed Income – Digitally classify income documents using industry-based models, extract data with and calculate income, including AI-based fraud detection for paystub validation add-on.
2.) Informed Consumer – Product bundle with the following configuration
a.) Informed Income – Digitally classifies income documents using industry models, and extracts the data from income documents, and calculates income. (AI based pay stub validation and fraud detection available as an add-on.)
b.) +Applicant Document Verification – Verification for income, residence, identity, Insurance, SSN, and proof of Bank Account Type.
3.) Informed Auto – Product bundle with the following configuration
a.) Informed Consumer
b.) +Dealer Document Verifications of retail installment sales contract, title application, credit application, ancillary documents, and all dealer documents.
4.) Dealer Verify – Dealer Stipulation Clearance Tool/ Interface: confidence that your deal won’t result in contracts In Transit or unwind due to issues with Credit Stipulations
5.) IncomeClear/Skip-The-Stip – a non-documentary income validation that compares an applicant’s stated income with similar workers based on occupation and geography while assessing the applicant’s propensity to over or under-state income and submitting falsified documentation.
6.) AI + HITL – Human in the Loop interface with AI model learning with data entry of missing fields keyed in under an hour, assisted AI co-pilot.
7.) CollectIQ – Patent verification of stipulations through a secure, FTC compliant, consumer documentation requests on behalf of the lender or dealer via a link sent to the applicant’s phone/email during the origination process.
Challenges Faced
Has Gonzalez faced any specific bottlenecks in her work sector recently? Gonzalez acknowledged:
“The discussion comes back to a point of concern for many, including those in white-collar positions: will AI take the jobs of human beings? AI really drives more efficiency than it threatens jobs. AI changes the way we work, but the industry needs to gain trust in the technology and ensure compliance and monitoring are in place to ensure the infrastructure can keep up with the changing work dynamic. AI frees people up to do what they actually enjoy the most and what they do best—which is the actual human-to-human interaction.”
Evolution Of Informed.IQ’s Technology
How has Informed.IQ’s technology evolved since launching? Gonzalez noted:
“As AI-powered OCR solutions like Informed evolve, they continue transforming the auto industry and other industries that rely heavily on paperwork. By automating document processing, AI-powered OCR saves time and money, improves efficiency, and reduces errors. Additionally, AI-powered OCR helps detect fraud and stay compliant with regulations.”
“All of the media attention around one new deployment of artificial intelligence–ChatGPT, which hit 100 million users in just two months–has opened people’s eyes to greater uses for AI.”
“AI leverages not only peers/teammates but can also delegate to AI agents specialized in particular tasks to help you do more with less and be able to scale operations without having to constantly add more headcount. We are leveraging GPT technology.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Gonzalez cited:
– 12% of all U.S. Auto loans are processed through Informed’s APIs.
– $120 billion originated to date with Informed’s automation.
– 7 of the top 10 Consumer lenders trust Informed’s technology.
Customer Success Stories
What have been some of the company’s customer success stories? Gonzalez highlighted this quote from Sean Fennema, SVP of Lending Operations at Crescent Bank:
“The Informed.IQ product has been a critical part of our funding improvements over the past year.”
“Funding turn times have decreased over 50% and has resulted in an over 30% increase in dealer satisfaction with our funding process. Our sales team is now able to use our funding process as a selling point when previously it was a drawback.”
“Additionally, the fraudulent paycheck tool has helped safeguard us from funding over 100 fraudulent deals. Finally, Informed team’s willingness and ability to consistently improve the product after discussions is very much appreciated.”
“I have been in auto finance for 37 years and I can confidently say the product is one of the biggest game changers I have seen in terms of industry advancement.”
Funding
After asking Gonzalez about the company’s funding, she revealed:
“Informed.IQ raised a $20 million Series A round in 2021 from notable investors, including Nyca Partners and US Venture Partners.”
Total Addressable Market
What total addressable market (TAM) size is the company pursuing? Gonzalez assessed: “We expect to own 40% of the auto market in 2024.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Gonzalez affirmed:
“We are more than just an OCR tool. We automate the entire origination process and solve automation issues such as image quality, document collection, dealer relations, and modeled income to waive verifications, creating a seamless experience.”
“OCR has a long way to go, especially in the auto industry where forms change constantly, and new document types are added regularly. However, by combining state-of-the-art OCR technology with applied intelligence “learned” from a purpose-built large language model (LLM) and subject matter experts, solutions like Informed intelligently ‘read’ the document, turn it into actionable insights, perform complex calculations, and more.”
“With the power of AI, you can get accuracy rates of 99% on known document types. Informed goes beyond traditional OCR by detecting fraud, calculating applicant income, collecting missing data/documents, and modeling out applicant income. OCR companies are limited to the text on documents, but our knowledge graph enables us to go beyond what is just on the document.”
“For example, we have the intelligence to predict form numbers and revision dates of contracts (such as GAP, RISCs, etc…) when they are badly scanned or cut off. We’re able to ingest state laws like CA AB 2311 into our GPT-4 model and flag GAP contracts that are missing the required disclosures and notices.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future company goals? Gonzalez concluded:
“We are committed to the success of our customers, and with tighter markets and changing industry trends, we are focused on enhancing our current product suite with a renewed focus on fraud and modeled data. Our mission is to continue increasing financial inclusivity.”
