Simply Asset Finance, the fast scaling specialist business lending provider, has unveiled Kara, a new virtual agent that will optimise the user experience, streamline processes and expedite lending decisions. 

Kara is an intelligent business bolt on to Simply’s systems and its people. Powered by AI, she draws on data accumulated since Simply’s foundation to generate smart, timely insights on a range of internal and external queries.  Using machine learning technology, she can also work with teams to adapt and improve the insight she provides, helping Simply and its partners shape and deliver a better lending eco-system.

Spanning multiple departments, Kara will focus on helping the business connect external data with internal knowledge by enhancing Simply’s powerful toolkit. She will play a key role in monitoring and optimising customer interactions to better understand their needs and sentiment. Meanwhile Kara can receive and process credit applications from brokers, support customer communications, and surface the right information to enhance internal knowledge-sharing across teams. She will also play a key role in helping increase efficiency, accelerate collaboration, and super-charge product innovation and rollout.

Simply is a next-generation SME lender that was founded by a team of industry specialists in 2017 in response to the need for innovation and disruption in the sector. With the belief that SME customers deserve better service and that the industry needs a complete overhaul to make it fit for purpose, it delivers on its brand promise of “Technology with a handshake”; combining market-leading technology with on-the-ground lending expertise. 

Following a successful FY24, the business recently achieved a major company milestone, surpassing £1.75 billion loan origination to date.

Ylva Oertengren, Chief Operating Officer at Simply Asset Finance, comments: “From day one we have been laser focused on gathering and structuring data and knowledge to build market leading expertise in SME lending. It is exciting to be in the position where we can use this advantage to deploy AI at scale across our operating model.

“Speed and efficiency are paramount to a fast scaling business like Simply, but so is excellence of experience and customer relationships. Kara embodies the expertise, creativity and collaboration that our teams represent. Working in tandem with our people, Kara will help shape and secure the future of our and our customers’ businesses.”