SaaScada enables NEXA to automate financial funding reporting, helping to improve speed and accuracy by eliminating manual efforts – while laying the ground to better understand its lending portfolio.
Cloud native core banking platform, SaaScada, today announced that it has renewed its partnership with residential property development funding platform, NEXA, to automate the creation of accurate and timely financial reporting. NEXA’s lending platform connects building societies with independent residential property developers, helping to ensure borrowers can secure funding at a fair price. By adopting the SaaScada platform, NEXA now has a trusted source of truth on all financial information, helping to save at least a day of the team’s time every month.
NEXA provides a full service to lenders and borrowers – helping to package each proposal through sourcing the deals, credit assessment, support with legal documentation, valuations, financial transactions and investment reporting. However, the manual effort needed for reporting was becoming a drain on the small start-up team – as well as introducing the potential risk of human error. As an existing SaaScada customer, NEXA worked with the team to adapt the SaaScada core banking platform to automate the delivery of all financial information and reporting to building societies. This has helped to reduce time spent on reporting, while also giving peace of mind that all figures are correct – providing a solid foundation for data analysis to help NEXA better understand its lending book.
“Housing is a big issue in the UK. But it can be hard for smaller developers to get the money they need from traditional lenders, which can act as a chokepoint in the industry,” comments Mark Williams, Chief Operating Officer and Head of Credit Risk at NEXA. “We just want to help more people build homes. By providing this matchmaking service, we are streamlining the process from cradle to grave, making it as easy as possible for both our lenders and borrowers. A big part of this responsibility is financial reporting.
“Building Societies have stringent rules around financial reporting – the data provided must be accurate, and timely, with no margin for error,” Williams continues. “Previously, we worked from tried and tested spreadsheets, which all had to be transferred across into manually processed filled statements – it was not efficient. Now with SaaScada it’s all automated, and importantly, highly trusted – when we get a redemption figure, it’s instant and we know it’s right. This data will also be key to helping us understand more about our portfolio, to inform investment strategies around diversification and concentration.”
NEXA originally intended to use the SaaScada platform to create a lending platform that would connect individual investors with property developers. However, shifts in the regulatory landscape meant it needed to pivot its business model. SaaScada was able to work with NEXA to adapt its platform – working in partnership to create a bespoke model that worked for both teams.
Today, NEXA works with more than 40 borrowers – ranging from SMEs’ sole traders to larger limited companies – and five building societies. The company achieved profitability within two years and has increased its deal size, as its portfolio of lenders and borrowers has broadened. NEXA is also able to fund more part social enterprises and unusual developments that may have otherwise struggled to get off the ground – such as building a house out of shipping containers or turning an old hospital into apartments and supporting the building of more social housing. As a next step, NEXA will be expanding beyond the Midlands into other areas of the UK, increasing its reach and growing deal sizes to help even more developers get the funding they need.
“When we realised that we needed to pivot to building societies it completely changed our business model. SaaScada could have just said ‘that’s not what we do’ but instead they listened and worked with us to build a solution. It’s been a real team effort. The team is incredibly responsive. And they have a deep understanding of our industry – they have just been fantastic to work with. And with SaaScada managing the nuts and bolts for all our financial funding information, we feel confident in the numbers, leaving us to focus on delivering a best-in-class service and growing the business – which is going from strength to strength,” Williams concludes.
Nelson Wootton, Co-Founder and CEO of SaaScada adds: “NEXA was one of the first businesses we worked with, and it’s been great to see how far they have come. The team has a genuine drive to do good and to support their lenders in getting the best deals possible. We’ve loved working with the NEXA team to ensure our technology delivers on their exacting requirements and we are all proud of where we have got to. We look forward to seeing NEXA continue to grow and prosper.”
