Numerated, a real-time marketing and sales platform for banks, raised $15 million this week to enhance its tech stack and grow its customer acquisition capabilities. Patriot Financial Partners led the funding round, with Venrock, FINTOP Capital and Hyperplane participating.

The Boston-based startup, which offers software designed to help banks find new corporate clients, pulls from public records, banking data and other information to underwrite prospective borrowers. Numerated underwrites the companies and generates loans in minutes, part of its goal to become a full-service lending partner for banks. The company currently serves 16 banks, including BNB Bank, Dollar Bank and Bremer Bank.

Dan O’Malley, founder and CEO of Numerated, said the company helps banks target potential customers more efficiently because they already know what businesses in their area are promising loan candidates.

With the company’s real-time term sheet product set to launch in the next few months, the goal is for bankers to sit down with corporate clients and instantly show loan terms based on the information garnered from the Numerated platform. If a company is looking to buy a new headquarters, for example, the banker will be able to instantly show how much the business will pay over time. Numerated said it is aiming to expand into different lending products throughout the upcoming year, but it didn’t offer specifics. 

Eastern Bank developed Numerated’s technology in-house through its incubator, Eastern Labs, beginning in 2015. The bank hired O’Malley to head up the innovation lab in 2014 before releasing Numerated as an independent company in 2017 with O’Malley at the helm.

In addition to bank data, the company considers public records information as part of its credit decision model. With public records, Numerated is looking for red flags, including outstanding court decisions. Using all the information it can acquire, Numerated can create a search engine-type capability for banks as they seek new customers.

Numerated also can identify potential lending clients that already are doing business with the bank in some other capacity. If a bank’s corporate client is paying off a Chase loan, for example, Numerated can notice that through transaction data and identify the client as a cross-sell prospect.

See also: Bremer Bank Taps Numerated for Business Loan Origination

Speed is a big part of Numerated’s pitch to banks. O’Malley said the fastest loan the company has generated was just under three minutes from beginning an application to money being in an account. Numerated generates revenue through implementation fees and annual servicing fees, as well as commissions if banks grow their client base.

David O’Connell, a senior analyst at Aite Group, said Numerated can help banks gain market share back from startup lending companies through the efficiency and comprehensiveness of its platform. Still, Numerated faces competition from large business lenders like Kabbage and BlueVine, whose proprietary software also offers real-time transaction data and quick decision-making processes.

It’s up to the bankers, however, to decide how aggressively they want to pitch loans once they discover new potential clients, noted O’Connell. “You need to be a little careful about considering cost because you’ll probably need to ramp up your marketing capabilities, and that’s not something for which you just press a button.”

Bank Innovation Build, on Nov. 6-7 in Atlanta, helps attendees understand how to “do” innovation better. It is designed to offer best practices, to guide the innovation professional to better results. Register here and save with early bird rates ending September 27th.