A new data-rich platform to help SMEs get funding, fast

Challenge

The majority of UK companies are SMEs. They are a vital part of UK economic growth and job creation. But in a worsening economy, a lot of business owners’ confidence in their future depends on business loans. A 2022 survey by Funding Options showed that 88% of 1,000 SMEs expected to be looking for funding in the near future. 

They need to be able to get this, and for their business to survive they often need to get it fast. 

Business finance marketplace Funding Options wanted to create a new product to facilitate this lending. It had already developed and built its own technology stack, Funding Cloud^(TM), which uses data analytics, open banking APIs and AI to make the process faster for SMEs, give greater transparency to lenders and make the market more efficient. 

Now Funding Options wanted to make use of all the data it was accumulating to help lenders see patterns in loan applications, usage, uptake and more, giving them extensive market intelligence and insights. This would help lenders respond to SMEs in almost real time and offer them what they need, when they need it, evolve their lending propositions, make more accurate decisions about products, and create new ones. 

We had already worked with the company on the launch of Funding Cloud^(TM) and now it came to us again.

What we did

We collaborated with Funding Options to create FC:Insights, working on the UX, UI and visual design. Lenders can embed their products in the platform and through granular trend data they can understand their position relative to other lenders, adapt their products and pricing, see new opportunities and make commercial decisions. 

Data visualisation

Data on its own is not enough. It has to be brought to life. When it’s presented visually in a simple, clear and attractive way, users can easily understand what it’s telling them. It can help them analyse complex data and see patterns and stories. It gives them insights that they can make informed decisions with and take action on, with confidence. 

As well as its proprietary technology, Funding Options wanted to use Tableau an interactive data visualisation tool – to power this new digital product. Tableau would integrate with its own multiple data sources to create a range of dashboards for users. 

We collaborated with a Tableau consultant to understand the possibilities of the system and how its use affects design choices. Working within its parameters, we decided how data would be displayed and we built all the chart types and landing pages. 

Once we had this, we created a roadmap for the product and a UX that signposts users to key data, and designed a visual style. This included colour palette, font choice and how space is used around the data for clear presentation.

Then we handed this to Funding Options’ development team to build, integrating with them to implement our design as part of the first release. This set the design foundation, ready for the product to be fully developed and launched. The project was done within a deadline of four weeks.

Outcome

We helped to create an intuitive and user-friendly platform, which – in a fragmented and highly competitive market – gives lenders near real-time knowledge and intelligence, so that they can make better lending decisions. FC:Insights is a technology milestone for Funding Options. 

“During these tumultuous times, both lenders and business leaders need all the tools at their disposal to make faster, cost-effective decisions […] We are offering lenders intuitive data visualisation to place them at the forefront of innovative product development. Over time, we will aim to scale this data-rich marketplace further and improve it based on the feedback of our valued lender partners to enable the collective market to move faster than ever before.”  

Malcolm Leach, CTO of Funding Options