Inc. Arabia, Ali, CEO of Orbii, highlighted how the startup is transforming SME financing across the MENA region by addressing some of the key structural challenges to credit access in the region.
“There are numerous challenges: thin or non-existent credit history, fragmented data sources, lengthy approval processes, and an emphasis on historical analysis,” Ali said. “Orbii tackles these by using a combination of alternative data and machine learning models to assess risk and automate the underwriting process. Instead of SMEs being judged by a lack of past borrowing, they’re assessed by real business performance and financial behavior today and predictive capabilities that were not previously possible.”
At the core of Orbii’s differentiation is a data philosophy that challenges the very foundation of traditional credit scoring. “Traditional lenders depend on backward-looking data, credit scores, audited financials etc.,” he said. “Orbii flips that model and believes credit scores as we know them today will effectively become deprecated. We ingest real-time, forward-looking data such [as] transactional data from a variety of different financial sources, supplier data, data that goes beyond macroeconomic indicators, that [have] proven to show an order of magnitude [better way] to determine eligibility.”
So, how does Orbii do this? Ali explained that what sets Orbii’s approach apart is its use of AI and machine learning (ML) to redefine creditworthiness for SMEs. This, he said, lowers default rates and increases loan approvals compared with traditional manual processes. “We apply machine learning (ML) that identifies repayment signals from thousands of non-traditional variables, rather than a single rigid score, [and] all of this is highly contextualized to the business,” he explained. “We continuously retrain models, so risk insights evolve dynamically with SME performance. This means SMEs that would otherwise be ‘invisible’ become financeable, without taking on disproportionate risk.”
In making those SMEs both visible and financeable, Orbii is carving out an entirely new market, while also facilitating loans to companies that might not otherwise have qualified for them. Additionally, Orbii is leveraging the culture, strategy, and growth momentum of the region to set a bold target for itself: to unlock $1 billion in SME financing by 2026.
This, Ali explained, will be made possible by the radical changes taking place across the region’s regulatory and financial landscape. “When countries like Saudi Arabia and UAE set bold visions, it takes big ideas to achieve them,” Ali said. “Part of the culture within Orbii is setting bold targets but even more so, making sure we get there. This allows us to constantly think outside the box, and that’s the Orbii way.”
Content Courtesy – MSN
