Small business lending innovator Ted Kosev joins JUDI.AI as Advisory Board member

VANCOUVER, BC, CANADA, May 17, 2023 — JUDI.AI, a leading SaaS small business lending provider for community lenders, announced today that Ted Kosev has joined its Advisory Board. Ted brings over 20 years of financial services experience with both traditional and fintech lenders, where he developed innovative solutions for small businesses and consumers.

Most recently, Ted was Product & Operations Lead at Square Capital, the lending arm of Block Inc. (formerly Square Inc.), where he led the expansion of small business lending to over $4B in loan originations serving hundreds of thousands of small businesses.

Prior to joining Square, Ted worked with Amazon, where he developed and launched Amazon Lending, the first-of-its-kind small business lending platform to use real-time eCommerce marketplace data for credit underwriting – including a zero-touch process from application to loan repayment.

Ted has also led teams across Risk, Finance and Operations functions at leading financial institutions, and advised banks and credit unions on expanding small business lending through the use of credit scoring and technology.

“Small businesses are a vital part of local economies, but struggle to access the funding they need to thrive. Meanwhile, community-based lenders are well-positioned to engage with local business owners, but lack the systems and credit models needed to evaluate their businesses for credit effectively and efficiently,” said Ted Kosev, Advisory Board member at JUDI.AI.

“The JUDI.AI team has challenged themselves to solve for this disconnect. They provide the tools for credit unions and community banks to lend to small businesses with confidence, which is helping build strong, connected and resilient communities,” noted Kosev. “I’m looking forward to lending a hand wherever I can.”

“It’s exciting to see someone with Ted’s background and experience take an active interest in what we’re doing at JUDI,” said Gord Baizley, CEO at JUDI.AI. “His input and perspective will be invaluable as we continue to bring new innovations to the small business lending space and help get more capital in the hands of small businesses.”

About JUDI.AI

Small businesses are the backbone of our local communities, but 40-50% of small businesses rank access to capital as their top challenge. Although the economics of small business lending have historically been untenable, mission and profit are no longer mutually exclusive in the digital world. Born and incubated inside a fintech lender, JUDI.AI enables community-based financial institutions to provide a fintech-like experience for small business loans. Combining the speed of consumer lending with the right amount of rigor from commercial lending, our AI-enabled platform uses a unique cash flow-based underwriting approach to eliminate the friction typically associated with small business lending. JUDI.AI pledges 1% of our equity, revenue, time and product to charities of our customers’ choice. To learn more, visit www.judi.ai.