Sydney-based regtech company Evenly, and data, analytics and technology company, Equifax, have partnered to launch the latest version of PayPredict, a platform that will help protect SMEs in the event of insolvencies and business exits by their debtors.
The free app focuses on Customer Reliability, a new measure that will help SMEs in handling customer payment issues by using real-time AI-driven insights to identify short and long-term customer risks. PayPredict then acts as a warning radar for future customer problems as they emerge.
“We know cashflow problems are the number one killer of SMEs with the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA) revealing around 90 per cent of small business failures are due to cashflow,” Kim Heras, CEO of Evenly, said.
“Late payments are a core component of those cashflow issues and the traditional process of dealing with poor payment behaviour after the fact just hasn’t worked,” Heras added. “It is better to get in front of the problem and by combining the unique data-driven insights of Evenly and Equifax into PayPredict, we’ve created a tool for SMEs and their advisors that does just that.”
PayPredict’s launch comes as recent ASIC data expects a rise in insolvencies and business failures in 2021/22 and the ongoing transition away from Government COVID stimulus measures such a JobKeeper and insolvency relief which propped up certain businesses, as well as insolvency reforms introduced earlier this year.
PayPredict was initially founded in late 2019 and has monitored billions of dollars in transactions and millions of underlying records, daily, for its customers. Through this partnership with Equifax and the new version of PayPredict, Evenly aims to make sure good businesses are not suffering from cashflow issues due to unreliable customers.
“We don’t think it’s fair that many good businesses experience stress and failure through no fault of their own,” Heras said. “You can’t avoid every risk in business but with PayPredict, SMEs finally get advance warning of any customer reliability issues and the tools they need to address them.”
Equifax Head of Commercial, Michael Criss, said, “While there are many positive signs highlighting business resilience across the economy, we also see signs of increasing financial stress. A data driven approach can help SMEs better protect their cash flows. Our partnership with Evenly helps us equip SMEs with data at their fingertips, part of our commitment to bring innovative, accessible, solutions to businesses of all sizes.”
