CreditUnions.com | Meet The Finalists For The 2025 Innovation Series: Lending
This year’s finalists are reshaping how credit unions approach lending thanks to increased efficiencies, AI, and more.
Think of it as Shark Tank with a credit union spin, and it’s just been renewed for another season.
The 2025 Innovation Series from CreditUnions.com and Callahan & Associates is underway. Every year since 2018, this series has offered a select group of suppliers 10 minutes each to impress an audience of credit union decision-makers. It’s simple: Each vendor pitches its offerings and attendees vote on their favorites.
The Innovation Series was a hit from the get-go and continues to grow in popularity. This year’s focus areas include financial wellness, member experience, lending, digital, analytics, and member engagement. Read on for more from this year’s lending finalists: Abrigo, Alogent, Enable Technologies Inc., and Ranqx.
Abrigo
Describe your innovation.
Abrigo Small Business Lending is a robust innovation for credit unions, transforming the member business lending process to drive efficiency, growth, and community impact for members. With cutting-edge automation, AI-powered decisioning, and a powerful ecosystem of partners, Abrigo empowers credit unions to overcome traditional barriers in member business lending.
What opportunity or challenge does it address?
Most credit unions rely on either manual origination steps or very rigid automation systems that don’t support most member business loan realities. Abrigo Small Business Lending is different – it provides an automated workflow for efficiency but also an easy off/on ramp when human oversight or intervention is needed. Its AI-powered transparent loan scoring provides deeper insights, ensuring smarter, faster lending decisions.
How does it increase member value?
Credit unions are often community-focused and aim to support the financial well-being of their members. Offering member business loans can help attract and retain members who are business owners or entrepreneurs, as well as foster economic growth. Abrigo’s Small Business Lending solution delivers exceptional value to credit union members by providing faster, smarter, and more accessible funding when they need it most. Abrigo’s innovative solution streamlines the experience through a simplified loan application, including 1071 data collection, automation, and AI-powered decisioning. The solution’s AI-driven loan scoring goes beyond traditional financial metrics, even for those who may not have extensive credit histories.
Further enhancing the member experience is Abrigo’s ecosystem of partners, which simplifies essential processes such as credit pulls and deposit and Treasury account opening. These capabilities not only reduce friction for small business members but also provides a seamless, end-to-end lending experience with additional offerings to deepen member relationships. With this solution, credit unions are equipped to more efficiently serve members.
What differentiates this innovation from competitors?
What sets Abrigo Small Business Lending apart is its proven ability to deliver measurable outcomes for credit unions empowering small businesses to thrive. Credit unions have the flexibility to incorporate manual steps into the automation process when needed, with loans seamlessly returning to the workflow once the manual step is complete. By enabling faster loan approvals — often within hours instead of days — Abrigo ensures borrowers gain quicker access to critical funds. This heightened efficiency strengthens relationships with members and fosters long-term growth. In a rapidly evolving financial landscape, Abrigo Small Business Lending positions credit unions as leaders in small business lending by integrating AI-driven decisioning, digital workflows, and proactive risk monitoring, enabling them to overcome traditional barriers, enhance member experiences, and stay competitive.
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To see the full article, visit CreditUnions.com, “Meet The Finalists For The 2025 Innovation Series: Lending.”
