Symend, a leading customer engagement platform designed to better engage, treat, and retain financially at-risk customers, today announced a $52 million USD raise led by global technology venture firm Inovia Capital, with participation from a consortium of investors including Ignition Partners, Impression Ventures, BDC Capital’s Women in Technology Fund, Mistral Venture Partners, and angel investor Markus Frind.
Symend’s service offering centers around enabling the science of engagement through technology. Enterprise organizations such as service providers, financial institutions, and utilities can digitally interact with their at-risk customers with empathy, while building lifelong value for the company and the brand. Symend has treated over 10 million at-risk customers to date through their digital engagement platform and is on track to treat 100 million by the end of 2020.
Symend’s white-label digital engagement platform combines behavioral science, AI, and machine learning to deliver deep insights into the customer’s situation and behavior, providing evidence-based recommended actions. Applying dynamic customer sub-segmentation across products, advanced behavioral modelling, and iterative optimization, Symend helps to create unique treatment strategies that don’t “talk at” customers – they positively engage them. Symend replaces legacy collection techniques to realign the objective from short-term recovery to long-term relationships. The company’s scientific research confirms that positively engaged customers are more apt to pay in full and to self-treat and, best of all, are more likely to stick with the provider or financial institution over the long run.
Symend will be using the money raised to invest heavily in development of their digital engagement platform, expand into new verticals and geographies, and grow the team across Canadian and US operations.
“We created Symend to help individuals who have fallen behind on payments and treat them with understanding at a time when they need it most. Our solution transforms how companies think about and interact with at-risk customers,” commented Hanif Joshaghani, Co-Founder and CEO of Symend. “Symend is not collections; we are in the business of helping consumers. Not only are we developing a world-class platform, but I’m proud to say that we are applying the sciences to support our mission of creating positive social change,” added Tiffany Kaminsky, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer.
“We’re impressed with Symend’s commitment to providing at-risk consumers with greater flexibility when it comes to meeting their financial obligations and protecting their credit. We invested in this great founding team because we value their openness, tenacity, and ability to deliver solutions for this critical problem,” said Inovia Capital Partner Dennis Kavelman.
According to Rob Enderle, President and Principal Analyst of the Enderle Group, “Doing debt collections effectively without destroying customer relationships is very difficult individually and nearly impossible at scale. By combining behavioral, data, and computer science to modernize and personalize the collection process, Symend has overcome the impossible by creating a debt collection solution that not only is more effective – it preserves the customer relationship and will scale.”
“Symend is exactly the kind of tech startup success story that Calgary is proud to champion. Not only are they delivering an innovative solution to the marketplace, but they are also actively leveraging our community’s rich and diverse talent pool as they expand their operations here. This is a win all around for Calgary and an inspiration for other local innovators and entrepreneurs,” said Mary Moran, President and Chief Executive Officer for Calgary Economic Development
