Citi & Barclays invest in Validis for banking innovation

Validis has announced strategic investments from Citi and Barclays to enhance commercial and corporate banking services through its financial data standardisation platform.

The investment by the two leading banks underscores a commitment to modernising business lending processes, specifically focusing on automated data standardisation. This encompasses various finance products, including corporate, commercial, and working capital finance products like invoice finance, receivables finance, and asset-based lending.

Citi and Barclays plan to use Validis' platform to enhance financial monitoring and provide underwriting-ready data quicker, significantly reducing application and credit review time. This approach supports robust decision-making processes for managing risk in the current lending environment.

Stephane Besson, Chairman of Validis, stated, "This strategic investment from two of the world's leading banks validates our vision of making standardised accounting data the cornerstone of modern lending."

Michael Turner, CEO of Validis, commented, "We're eliminating historically time-consuming and high-cost data processes, particularly for complex commercial clients, enabling lenders to make faster, smarter decisions based on clean, reliable data."

The partnership with Citi and Barclays will allow Validis to accelerate its growth and leverage strategic guidance from these global lenders. The investment will provide funding for continuous product development and the expansion of sales and marketing efforts.

James Binns, Managing Director, Global Head of Trade & Working Capital at Barclays, said, "By automating data collection and standardisation, we can not only deliver faster decisions and better service, but also offer client-focused working capital funding products at scale. This enables us to meet our customers' unique needs while still meeting our credit assessment standards."

Andrew Murray, Head of Institutional Strategic Investments at Citi, noted, "The depth and quality of Validis' data enables real-time access to standardised financial information, enabling proactive financial support to our commercial bank clients. Improving credit process automation and the scope and timeliness of data available helps capital flow more freely into businesses of all sizes and close critical funding gaps across the market."

Validis' technology extends its transformative impacts beyond lending. Partnering with over 100 lending and accounting firms, it provides the granular, transaction-level data necessary for audit processes. This level of detail, which is unprecedented in lending, allows financial institutions to make decisions based on audit-grade financial information.