San Francisco, CA / Las Vegas, NV (RiseUp / Money2020), Oct. 21, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today Fundbox, a leading financial technology company dedicated to simplifying the way businesses pay and get paid, announced a new research report that finds newer data-driven underwriting models are helping to close the “gender credit gap”.
The company has released a new research report called “What If” , that chronicles the historical challenges women-business owners have faced in accessing a business line of credit. The report concludes with Fundbox’s own empirical data demonstrating that transaction-focused risk models help to reduce access-to-credit friction for women where traditional underwriting processes are challenged.
The Reality For Women-Business Owners
Women business owners are an economic powerhouse contributing millions of jobs and trillions of dollars to the US economy. Yet, history shows that women entrepreneurs have faced more and greater obstacles compared to men in their quest to obtain credit and secure investment. Inequities in today's financial landscape remain and are often exacerbated by financial institutions in their methods for determining creditworthiness. Within the report, readers will find insights into the following:
- The rise of female entrepreneurs and why it matters
- How traditional credit approvals can shut out women
- The credit gap between male and female entrepreneurs
- Why technology is helping level the playing field
- How financial firms can help create a fairer future
Despite the challenges that women-business owners face, the report concludes that there are newer, more data-driven underwriting methods that can diminish bias and level the playing field so that women and men are treated fairly.
“At Fundbox, we believe in the importance of financial inclusion. All business owners deserve fair and equal access to credit,” said Sebastian Rymarz, Chief Business Officer of Fundbox. “Our goal with this research project was to highlight the fact that women entrepreneurs continue to face significant challenges when applying for credit. Thankfully, advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies are helping to close the gender credit gap and, we’re proud to be part of that much needed wave of change.”
The “What If” report is based on a curated assemblage of objective and respected research from government, nonprofits and academic sources. These include (but are not limited to): the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Department of Commerce, the U.S. Senate Committee, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO), the National Women’s Law Center, the Kauffman Foundation, Urban Institute, the University of New Hampshire, the University of Texas at San Antonio, and the Institute for Women’s Policy Research.
About Fundbox
Fundbox is a leading technology platform focused on disrupting the $21 trillion B2B commerce market by building the world’s first B2B credit and payment network. With Fundbox, sellers (of all sizes) can quickly increase average order volumes (AOV) and improve close rates by offering more competitive net terms and payment plans to their SMB buyers. With heavy investments in machine learning and the ability to accurately assess credit risk in a matter of minutes, Fundbox is reimaging B2B credit and payments products in new category-defining ways.
Since the company’s founding in 2012, Fundbox has raised $140 million from a blue-chip group of investors led by Khosla Ventures, General Catalyst, Spark Growth Capital and Jeff Bezos, and is currently experiencing incredible growth momentum.
For more information, please visit www.fundbox.com.