Tearsheet recently recognized the winners of our 2020 Data Awards. We’re running a short series on the winners and other top applicants as part of our ongoing coverage of financial data. Tearsheet’s Resilience Awards are currently open for submissions.
Tearsheet’s Data Innovation Award is intended to go to the a company that exhibits an innovative use of data, data sharing or data aggregating that provides superior value to the end user.
Our judges looked at submissions against 4 criteria:
- Creativity
- Innovative thinking
- Consumer value
- Results related to KPIs
Context
It can be an expensive and frustrating challenge for financial services companies to acquire new customers online. Acquisition costs continue to go up. Founded in 2015, Even Financial is a search, comparison and recommendation engine for financial services.
Data innovation
Even is a B2B fintech company that changes the way financial institutions find and connect with consumers. By bridging financial institutions (including American Express, Goldman Sachs, and SoFi) and channel partners (like TransUnion, Business Insider, and The Penny Hoarder) via its API, Even turns consumer touchpoints into programmatic acquisition sources for financial services offers across loans, savings, credit cards, and insurance.
"Prior to my previous company Orchard, we were working off this thesis that financial services were involving in a way similar to the what happened in adtech," said founder and CEO Phill Rosen to Tearsheet in February. "Direct relationships were becoming more programmatic and distributed and powered by APIs. As that happens, you need platforms to bring scale, efficiency, and transparency to the industry."
Even’s data-driven marketplace for the financial services industry focuses on connecting consumers to a variety of personal finance products. For financial institutions, Even has shown that it can lower cost of acquisition, improve monetization and decrease delinquency rates.
Even's platform evaluates consumers on a rich set of criteria to establish a financial product fit. Consumer data is sourced, verified, and utilized through machine learning to create a strong profile. The Even API is used by legacy institutions like Goldman Sachs and American Express to acquire customers for their personal loans and savings products.
AI and machine learning
In order to drive real-time decision making, Even employs state of the art techniques in AI and machine learning paired with their team of experienced data scientists and business analysts to apply an extensive set of tools utilized in finance and adtech—acting quickly to understand and react to complex markets.