{"id":38730,"date":"2023-10-20T14:58:35","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:58:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/fintech-sail-funding-launches-with-8-million-and-an-algorithm-it-says-will-change-how-small-businesses-get-loans-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T14:58:35","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:58:35","slug":"fintech-sail-funding-launches-with-8-million-and-an-algorithm-it-says-will-change-how-small-businesses-get-loans-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/fintech-sail-funding-launches-with-8-million-and-an-algorithm-it-says-will-change-how-small-businesses-get-loans-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Fintech Sail Funding launches with $8 million and an algorithm it says will change how small businesses get loans – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Sail
Sail Funding founder Yanir Yakutiel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The founder of fintech Sail Funding says he is \u201cvery, very lucky\u201d to have secured $8 million in funding for his business, but the SME lender doesn\u2019t let luck play any part in delivering money to clients.<\/p>\n

Yanir Yakutiel has watched the Australian fintech space for the past five years and witnessed an opportunity for rigorous algorithms and security features in the increasingly crowded market of small lenders. With a background in shipping and logistics, Yakutiel saw the fintech space take off in Israel before turning to Aussie SMEs as an obvious market for growth.<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s first capital raising, which closed earlier this year, secured $8 million in funding. The startup’s backers include Sydney-based investors Messrs Marc and Gideion Lubotzky, who have joined the Sail board.<\/p>\n

The funds will be put towards further product development and expanding the lender\u2019s tech talent pool, which is a pricey but important part of Sail\u2019s plans for dominance, says Yakutiel.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been very very lucky in the ability to build a strong team \u2013 and that costs money. It\u2019s needed for nailing the product and the user experience,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

With several other small lenders already approaching their second birthdays, the business is looking to differentiate itself with an algorithm that uses machine learning to deliver better risk analysis, and security software AU10TIX BOS, which lets clients upload personal documents safely.<\/p>\n

The local market has seen phenomenal growth for lending fintech platforms over the past two years, but Yakutiel says the Sail team believe there\u2019s still room to take the biggest slice \u2013 and developing software that become more intelligent as the loan book grows can only speed up that growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve developed a completely proprietary backend system that allows us to launch additional products,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the market is ripe for disruption and like in any sort of business, if you develop a competitive customer value proposition to a big enough market, you do well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sail team has also had the chance to see what others in the space are up to as part of the NSW government\u2019s Landing Pad program in Israel, which it was selected for along with seven other startups<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people that are setting up these companies in Australia are phenomenally talented \u2013 and I think some of them will do very very well,\u201d Yakutiel says.<\/p>\n

Sail officially launched in Sydney this week, but with a team of 10 developers based in Israel and a founder who has watched the market from afar and been in Australia just five years, the team have been watching the local startup ecosystem with interest.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a great paradigm shift in terms of the eagerness of people to be involved in startups [in Australia],\u201d Yakutiel says.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think there\u2019s a lot of work still to be done on the culture side. There\u2019s not the urge to go and do it like other countries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yakutiel says the prospect of entering the world of business by taking control of a startup is \u201cstill not like a driving force like it is in Israel,\u201d where he says many young people exit studies or military service eager to get a stake in a brand new venture.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s still young people [in Australia] who come through the tertiary education system and into very comfortable jobs,\u201d he says, adding that this can make the startup scene a less attractive proposition.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s always room for the ecosystem to grow, and all it might take is a few more homegrown successes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith two or three more success stories of big companies going public and wealth being created for employees, that will help,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sail Funding founder Yanir Yakutiel The founder of fintech Sail Funding says he is \u201cvery, very lucky\u201d to have secured<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61550,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38730"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}