IBM watsonx.ai Enables Fintech Startup Flowpay to Accelerate International Market Expansion

Flowpay is a fintech startup that provides online operational financing to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across Central Europe. The company operates on predictive AI models to assess risk and offer embedded finance solutions to lending institutions. After establishing a successful presence in the Czech Republic, Flowpay aimed to expand into neighboring markets. However, entering new countries required collecting and categorizing Payment Services Directive (PSD2) transaction data—a manual, time-intensive process that created a significant operational bottleneck. The company needed to automate this workflow to scale efficiently.

Flowpay partnered with IBM Client Engineering through the Fintechx program to implement generative AI solutions. Over a four-week pilot, a seven-person team built and tested two AI-assisted workflows using IBM watsonx.ai, an enterprise-grade AI studio designed for secure data management and process automation. The first workflow automates metadata creation for new markets by using large language models (LLMs) to process publicly available data and generate initial datasets that can be configured in minutes. The second workflow accelerates the underwriting process by generating high-level financial summaries and risk assessments from raw PSD2 transaction data in non-technical language. Both solutions leverage IBM watsonx.ai's LLM capabilities to handle enterprise-grade requirements while reducing manual effort.

The pilot demonstrated measurable improvements across critical business processes. The automated metadata creation process eliminated the time required for new market research and initial data categorization, enabling rapid deployment in new countries. The system also reduced monthly metadata error correction cycles by half, reducing rework. The AI-powered underwriting reports accelerated the loan approval process, allowing underwriters to make faster decisions. Flowpay has begun deployment in Slovakia as of April 2024 and plans to expand the solution across additional markets while enhancing the underwriting reports with new assessment sections including digital presence analysis, business partner evaluation, and income forecasting.