This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will develop an software system directed at financial institutions (lenders and investors) that will provide them with actionable, realtime intelligence into the health of private companies. The technology being developed will scan and parse millions of structured, semi-structured and unstructured information sources searching for signals of a private company's health. Then, based on context, it will algorithmically process, categorize and assess the sentiment and strength of these disparate signals to offer a comprehensive, coherent and real-time view of a private company's health, its likely financing needs and best fit financing solutions from a financial institution?s product portfolio. Using the company's line of products, financial institutions will be able to look at private companies in a fundamentally different, smarter, more scalable and data-driven way that empowers them to efficiently and intelligently make critical financing and capital allocation decisions. Specifically, they will have the potential to able to identify the right private companies in real-time and will be armed with intelligence they can use to offer them appropriate financing solutions.
The system's ability to process a diversity of structured, semi-structured and unstructured information sources and programmatically derive measures of company health would have profound positive effects on the precision, rigor and scalability of institutional lending and investment into private companies. Today, the private company financing market is built on highly imprecise and imperfect heuristics that result in high business loan default rates, or at its worst, bank failures as occurred in 2009. The downstream impact of this is that small businesses do not get the financing they need as evidenced in 2009 when, according to the Federal Reserve, only 40% of private small businesses that sought bank financing actually received the funding they needed. Per the Small Business Administration, businesses with fewer than 500 employees account for more than half the nation's employment and nearly half of GDP. As a result, it is critical that healthy private companies which are an economic catalyst have access to financing. Unfortunately, without credible, actionable, scalable and real-time information which distinguishes between healthy and unhealthy private businesses, financial institutions remain at an informational disadvantage. This increases their risk, which in turn hinders growing, healthy private companies from receiving the financing they need. If successfully deployed, the technology being supported by this proposal has the potential to make a significant impact in the marketplace.
This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase project developed a software system and algorithms (herein referred to as Mosaic) that provides customers with actionable, real-time intelligence into the health of private companies using public data. Our technology scans and parses millions of structured, semi-structured and unstructured information sources to identify signals of a private company's health. Based on the programmatic understanding of these signals, Mosaic offers a comprehensive, coherent and real-time view of a private company's momentum, financial health and industry momentum. Using the company's Mosaic products, customers ranging from business development organizations to corporations to financial institutions are able to invest, acquire, sell and procure from private companies using predictive intelligence that Mosaic provides. Mosaic offers predictive firmographic information that offers a fundamentally different, smarter, more scalable and data-driven way to make critical business decisions. Specifically, they can identify the right private companies in real-time and will be armed with intelligence they can use to offer them the right solutions at the right time. The system's ability to process a diversity of structured, semi-structured and unstructured information sources and programmatically derive measures of company health will have profound positive effects on the precision, rigor and scalability of efforts relating to private companies. Today, the ability to understand private companies is hindered by highly imperfect, time-lagged data which results in highly imprecise and imperfect heuristics that result in private companies not receiving the opportunities - financing, vendor pricing, credit terms - that they should. Per the Small Business Administration, businesses with fewer than 500 employees account for more than half the nation's employment and nearly half of GDP. As a result, it is critical that healthy private companies which are an economic catalyst are better understood. Unfortunately, without credible, actionable, scalable and real-time information which distinguishes between healthy and unhealthy private businesses, those wishing to do business with these companies remain at an informational disadvantage. This increases their risk and speed which in turn hinders growing, healthy private companies. The Mosaic technology is already in the marketplace and gained early adoption with a slew of customers. It has the potential to make a significant impact in the marketplace.
