Case Study: Idea Financial cuts data costs 50% and doubles loan applications processed with Explorium

Idea Financial Partners with Explorium to Prescreen Loan Applicants; Cuts Data Expenses by 50%

Idea Financial, a U.S. online commercial lender offering lines of credit and term loans to small businesses, faced high data acquisition costs and slow model development for its pre‑screen underwriting process. To reduce those expenses without degrading decision quality or customer experience, Idea Financial turned to Explorium and its External Data Platform to bring reliable external signals into the earliest stage of loan applications.

Explorium integrated NAICS codes and other external data signals into Idea Financial’s pre‑screen model to verify applicant information and rule out ineligible businesses early. As a result, Explorium helped cut data acquisition costs by about 50%, doubled the number of loan applications processed without adding headcount, and enabled the data team to move from prototyping to production in a single day instead of weeks.

Idea Financial

Joe Salvatore

Chief Risk