Fintech & Female Founders: How Women Are Disrupting the Debt Lending Space

On International Women’s Day, we recognise the women reshaping fintech—driving innovation, expanding access to capital, and breaking down barriers in finance.

In recent years, fintech as completely changed how we manage our personal and business finances. Open banking has allowed consumers to securely share financial data across platforms, enabling more personalised financial services. Variable Recurring Payments (VRPs) streamline payments with automated, flexible transactions – no card details required. Mobile payment solutions like Apple Pay, Google Pay, and PayPal have simplified transactions, while blockchain-based payment networks provide faster, more secure cross-border transfers.

Platforms like Wealthfront use AI to provide automated, low-cost investment management, making wealth-building accessible to more people. Meanwhile, traditional banking has been disrupted by digital-only banks like Revolut that offer seamless mobile banking experiences, low fees, and AI-driven financial insights.

Technology is Changing Access to Capital for Businesses

In the alternative lending space, one of the most significant advancements in fintech is the ability to provide seamless, real-time access to capital. Traditional lending processes have historically been slow, bureaucratic, and heavily reliant on collateral and extensive documentation. Fintech innovations have streamlined these processes, reducing the time and complexity involved in securing business loans.

For SMEs, this expanded access to capital has provided faster, more accessible funding, without lengthy application processes, strict credit requirements, or slow approvals from traditional banks. For lenders, fintech has improved compliance and risk management with AI-powered fraud detection, automated Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) solutions. This has helped financial institutions adhere to complex regulations efficiently.

Women Innovating in Digital Banking and Alternative Lending

And in all of this - women-led startups are at the forefront of this transformation.

Historically, female entrepreneurs and minority-owned businesses have faced significant barriers when seeking loans from traditional banks. Conventional lending models often rely on outdated credit assessments that disproportionately disadvantage these groups.

Female founders in fintech are breaking this paradigm, and pioneering innovations in digital banking and alternative lending, fundamentally altering how businesses access capital.

For instance, CNote, founded by Catherine Berman, channels investment into women-owned businesses and underserved communities. Other female-led fintech firms, such as Tala, founded by Shivani Siroya, are expanding financial inclusion using alternative credit scoring, providing microloans to millions lacking traditional credit histories.

Other notable players like Lendable, co-founded by Victoria Van Lennep, are improving credit access in emerging markets with data-driven lending solutions, while Credit Karma, co-founded by Nichole Mustard, has empowered millions to take control of their financial health by offering free credit scores and personalised insights.

These women-led initiatives are challenging the status quo, making financial systems more inclusive and equitable, and driving innovation in the fintech space.

AI-Driven Risk Management & Automation

Risk management and regulatory compliance have traditionally been major challenges for banks and lending institutions. The rise of fintech solutions has revolutionised these areas by automating risk assessments and compliance, reducing human error, and enhancing overall efficiency. While real-time risk solutions are prevalent in the consumer space, equivalent fine-grained solutions for SMEs specifically were still lacking.

At SME Capital, we’ve developed automated risk assessment tools that can help lenders quickly evaluate loan applications and efficiently monitor portfolio loans. The tools leverage SME bank transaction data to offer a real-time and consolidated view into the financial health of multi-entity deals.

Introducing Navrisk: a product to consolidate, monitor, and analyse business bank transaction data in real time. This launch stems from our successful Innovate UK Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) with the University of Warwick and academic partner Martin Lotz. Former KTP Associate, Brandi Jess has now joined the SME Capital team full-time as Data Product Manager of Navrisk.

Built for private assets, Navrisk uses live bank transaction data to detect financial risks early and support portfolio growth. The innovation lies in Al-powered early warning indicators that boost productivity and uncover hidden risk.

By ensuring continuous access to up-to-date data, Navrisk provides a consolidated view across multiple bank accounts and complex company structures, eliminating blind spots that can expose lenders to unforeseen financial risks. Informed by our long track record in SME credit risk and backed by the AI and financial risk expertise of our long-time SME Capital strategic advisor Marya Bazzi, Navrisk is tried and tested by domain experts.

SME Capital Portfolio Manager, Jane Chesson was one of these experts. Saying: "With Navrisk now at my disposal, to-do lists and admin tasks keep halving, giving me more time to manage borrower risks in real-time."

Credit professional, Helena Mercer added "Navrisk delivers intelligent data effortlessly that makes my life easier. It really is a no brainer."

Our pioneering work is setting new industry standards, making risk management more timely, transparent, and scalable for modern financial institutions. It enables portfolio managers to act quickly, reduce exposure, and scale their investments with confidence.

Kate Kennedy, SME Capital COO and General Manager of Navrisk summarised "SMEs experience different challenges to larger corporates, which makes lending decisions and portfolio management more nuanced. Navrisk leverages all our experience and seeks to facilitate more lending to this market segment whilst ensuring the borrower is well supported once they have joined our portfolio. We pride ourselves in helping SME owners to build their businesses and work safely with debt."

For more information on Navrisk or to book a DEMO, please visit: https://www.navrisk.io/

About Navrisk

Navrisk helps private credit firms stay ahead of risk with real-time insights, proven early warning indicators, and automated bank transaction monitoring. We ensure continuous access to up-to-date data, providing a unified view across bank accounts and complex company structures.

Built by industry experts, Navrisk cuts through the noise to highlight only critical risks, enabling asset managers to act quickly, reduce exposure, and scale their portfolios with confidence.

About SME Capital

SME Capital was founded to support the growing number of SMEs who face difficulty or frustration in accessing capital through traditional methods. We understand the importance of real and trusted relationships in the SME lending market and have dedicated Regional Directors based across the UK.

By combining traditional lending expertise with the latest in data analytics, we are supporting established UK SMEs with their long-term objectives and business ambitions.

About Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs)

KTPs or Knowledge Transfer Partnerships is Europe's leading programme helping businesses to improve their competitiveness by enabling companies to work with higher education or research and technology organisations to obtain knowledge, technology or skills which they consider to be of strategic competitive importance. The UK-wide programme is overseen by Innovate UK, the UK's innovation agency, and supported by 16 other public sector funding organisations.