Toronto-based predictive intelligence startup Senso, which helps financial institutions predict behaviour of clients, has signed an agreement with global credit reporting firm TransUnion.
The deal will see TransUnion making Senso’s AI platform available to its Canadian mortgage lender clients.
“It’s essential for lenders to understand their clients and engage them proactively.”
Senso provides financial institutions with predictive intelligence through an AI platform that is meant to help predict behaviour and take “proactive steps” to strengthen client relationships. Senso’s goal with its technology is to improve customer retention and loyalty.
The startup was founded in 2017 by Saroop Bharwani (CEO) and Nick Seelert (CTO). Its platform is cloud-based and anonymously analyzes first- and third-party data to generate predictive insights about consumers. The startup currently focuses on the mortgage market.
TransUnion is an incumbent consumer credit reporting agency that has expanded from its roots and now touts itself as “a global information and insights company.” TransUnion offers businesses what it calls an “accurate and comprehensive picture” of consumers.
Senso and TransUnion have entered into a deal that has the global company using the Toronto startup’s technology to power its Mortgage Retention Score tool. The offering uses Senso’s platform to provide TransUnion’s mortgage lending customers with a way to identify clients at risk of churn and those seeking financing for a home purchase.
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Todd Skinner, president of TransUnion Canada, called mortgage churn “a real problem for lenders.” “The Senso Mortgage Retention Score will help lenders develop proactive strategies that optimize client experience and lifetime value,” he stated.
“The new normal for lenders is to predict their client’s needs and to provide them with new offers and pre-approvals when and where they need them most,” said Senso CEO Bharwani. “With interest rates being at an all-time low, and demand for homes being at an alltime high, it’s essential for lenders to understand their clients and engage them proactively so they have no reason to seek a financing option elsewhere.”
The deal with TransUnion comes a couple of months after Senso revealed a $4 million CAD seed extension, which brought its total seed round to $5.5 million. At the time, Bharwani told BetaKit Senso was using the capital to fuel expansion into the US market, where the startup sees its greatest demand.
Working with TransUnion will make Senso’s product available to an increasing number of Canadian lenders.
Senso is backed by the likes of Silicon Valley venture capital fund BreakawayGrowth, Mendoza Ventures, Rising Tide, BDC, iNovia Capital, Luge Capital, NEXT Canada, and Techstars.