Crediflow AI secures £1.5m to automate commercial lending

Manchester-based fintech Crediflow AI has secured £1.5 million in funding to accelerate the development of its AI-powered commercial lending platform, designed to reduce manual underwriting processes and help lenders increase their capacity to finance SMEs.

The investment round was led by NPIF II – PXN Equity Finance, managed by PXN Ventures as part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II (NPIF II), with additional backing from Haatch and angel investors.

Crediflow AI has developed a platform that automates time-consuming credit assessment tasks, including financial spreading, cash flow analysis and the preparation of credit committee reports.

By extracting and standardising information from financial statements, bank transactions and borrower documentation, the platform aims to reduce the administrative burden on commercial lending teams.

According to Crediflow, processes that can take several days when completed manually can be reduced to between 10 and 30 minutes, allowing credit professionals to focus more on assessing borrowers and structuring finance.

The technology is already being used by hundreds of credit professionals across the UK, Europe and the US, with customers ranging from specialist lenders such as AddWorking Capital to global captive finance providers including Iveco Capital.

The new funding will support further platform development, engineering and product recruitment, and expansion into additional banks and specialist lenders.

Crediflow also plans to extend its automation capabilities across the lending lifecycle, bringing together loan origination, underwriting and monitoring within workflows tailored to individual lenders’ credit policies.

The company believes reducing the cost and time involved in underwriting could make smaller commercial loans more commercially viable, improving access to finance for SMEs while enabling lenders to expand their loan books without a corresponding increase in administrative costs.

Drey Kenfack, CEO and Founder of Crediflow AI, said:

“Growing a loan book takes more than finding borrowers and having capital available. You need the capacity to assess those businesses, get decisions through approval and stay on top of risk once the money is out the door. I’ve spent much of my career doing that work.

“When every transaction requires hours of manual preparation, it affects how much business a lender can take on and which deals are worth pursuing. We built Crediflow to bring that workload down and give credit teams more time to understand the borrower and structure the financing.”

Kenfack founded Crediflow following more than a decade working in commercial lending and private credit, including senior credit roles at Ford Credit Bank, DF Capital Bank and Advance Global Capital.

Investment to accelerate technology development

Crediflow previously received funding through PXN’s PraeSeed programme, a 12-week investment initiative run in partnership with the British Business Bank and NPIF II to support early-stage businesses.

Joe Ball, Senior Investment Associate at PXN Ventures, said the company’s technology could help address inefficiencies in commercial finance.

“Businesses of all sizes and across all sectors often rely on commercial finance for a multitude of reasons, but the processes involved in granting this finance are often largely manual, making the process inefficient and slowing down lending decisions.

“By automating this area of the sector, Drey and the Crediflow AI team are not just supporting lenders but also removing barriers for companies that need funding to grow.”

Jonathan Keeling, Partner at Haatch, highlighted the company’s industry experience and growing customer base.

“With live customers across the UK, Europe and the US, the team has the traction to scale quickly, and we’re proud to support them on that journey.”

The investment forms part of the £660m Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II, which provides debt and equity finance to support smaller businesses across the North of England.

The funding will enable Crediflow to expand its technology and delivery capabilities as commercial lenders increasingly explore AI-driven solutions to improve efficiency, reduce costs and support business lending growth.