Ada Guan’s ‘very long-running race’ to raise $37m for Rich Data Co
Having just completed a year-long $37m Series B cap raise for her Sydney firm, Ada Guan is proof of the adage that it’s better late than never.
Ada Guan is proof of the adage that it’s better late than never. She completed a $37m Series B raise for Sydney-based Rich Data Co earlier this year. It was a torturous process that took 12 months to complete, but she said it was necessary to accelerate the company’s global expansion.
“It has been a very long-running race,” CEO Guan says.
“It’s a difficult race. I wouldn’t sugar-coat it. For any start-up, it is not an easy journey. But we went through it relatively well. We attracted strategic investors and the one we have announced now, Acorn Capital, we have huge respect for.”
This is an article from The List: Innovators 2024, which is announced in full on October 18.
Rich Data Co, which is also backed by Westpac, uses artificial intelligence to give bankers “rapid access to more detailed data” to help them decide whether to lend to businesses. And while the company remains Sydney-based, it is signing more North American banks to its platform. It has already signed M&T Bank, America’s sixth-largest commercial bank. “Applying AI in that space is actually quite difficult, so we see ourselves as a leader in the space globally on how to apply AI for business lending and commercial lending in the credit decision space,” Guan says.
Before co-founding the company, Guan had a 20-year career including senior roles at Oracle, Westpac, Woolworths and Macquarie.
She started Rich Data Co in 2016 after finding the gap in understanding between borrowers and banks was often an impediment to businesses obtaining credit.
Rich Data Co’s technology not only helps banks with lending decisions but also regulatory requirements, she says, describing it as presenting a “movie” versus a “static picture” of a customer.
“We like to say the credit assessment is almost a point in time,” she says.
“The bank takes a snapshot at the time of opening the account and then annually APRA [Australian Prudential Regulation Authority] requires the banks to do an annual review process. So you snapshot at origination and then snapshot every year looking back at the past transactions, past financial statements. What we enable banks to do is pull that transaction data about the customer on a monthly basis, so instead of a static picture you have a movie around customers – the ups and downs, the way they are facing issues – so the banks can support them.”
The data used by banks to make traditional credit assessments could be up to 18 months old, Guan says.
“For us, we come with a pre-packaged solution that allows you to use your data to understand your customer better in order to understand and service them better. It’s just a complete paradigm change.”
Like many companies, Rich Data Co is now regaining international traction lost during the Covid-19 pandemic, which led to it “pulling everything back to Australia”. But Guan says that is changing – and rapidly.
“You’ll see us continue to expand in Australia, the New Zealand market, and also, to a degree, expanding into Singapore as the first step in terms of expanding in Asia-Pacific. And we categorise US and Canada as the North American market.”
Join The Australian’s technology editor Jared Lynch for a free panel discussion at SXSW at 2pm Monday at The Ideas Dome, Tumbalong Park, Sydney with guests Ada Guan, CEO, Rich Data Co; and Michael Batko, CEO, Startmate.
Acorn Capital describes Rich Data Co as the first Australian business it has encountered that is successfully commercialising AI in this way in the financial services sector.
“Acorn seeks to invest in emerging Australian companies that demonstrate a strong product-market fit, possess a sustainable competitive advantage, and are highly scalable,” Acorn Capital investment director Andrew Burt says.
“RDC is a clear market leader in developing and commercialising AI that enables banks to drive both stronger growth in lending and efficiency in credit management.”
Westpac managing director of business lending Shane Howell says the bank invested in Rich Data Co to streamline the credit assessment process.
“This work gives us a deeper understanding of our customers, so that we can support and provide insights as and when they need it,” he says.
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