Bourn Partners with Honey Badger

Bourn and Honey Badger Partner to Offer More Intelligent SME Risk Analytics to Banks and Lenders 

Bourn, the fintech reinventing working capital for the UK's growth economy, has partnered with Honey Badger, the intelligent pre-KYC risk platform helping lenders detect fraud and surface hidden credit risks - before exposure, cost, or complexity set in.

By embedding Honey Badger’s technology into its lending workflow, Bourn now enables real-time validation of SME applicants and their debtors. For banks and lenders, it means safer approvals in less time.  For SMEs it’s a smoother, smarter experience.

“Our partnership with Honey Badger means that every applicant, every contact detail, every debtor can be assessed by lenders instantly,” said Roger Vincent, Co-Founder of Bourn. “We can now deliver faster risk analytics with greater confidence, giving our lending partners more information, and SMEs a better experience.”

Intelligence, built in

Most fraud and risk checks come too late in the lending journey and are slow, manual, and reactive. Honey Badger works earlier, in the pre-KYC phase. With just an email or phone number, it runs thousands of real-time checks, using AI to cross-reference breach data, digital footprint, and behavioural signals to surface hidden risks before onboarding even begins.

A better experience for businesses - and banks

With Honey Badger, Bourn’s lending partners can now:

• Pre-verify contact information using digital presence and breach data
• Detect synthetic or manipulated identities before onboarding 
• Identify early signs of financial stress via subprime loan application records linked to directors
• Automate debtor validation, reducing manual work and approval delays

Risk results come back in seconds, complete with risk scores, red flags, and raw data evidence, which lenders can use to make faster, more informed decisions. 

We built Honey Badger to protect lenders from risk by flagging early warning signs before they become problems,” said Matt Salisbury, Co-Founder and CEO of Honey Badger. “Bourn’s team understood that immediately. Together we’re proving that when it comes to risk, you don’t have to sacrifice speed for confidence and when done correctly, it can become a genuine competitive advantage.”

A faster route to safer credit, without the trade-offs

The integration eliminates one of the slowest and costliest pain points in SME lending: verifying new contacts and debtors.  The process is fast and highly accurate.

This partnership unlocks:

• Faster approvals with sub-15 second debtor checks
• Lower fraud exposure, especially in early-stage deals
• Reduced operational costs and manual work for lending partners
• Safer, faster decisions for lenders
• A better experience for SMEs applying for funding
  

Rebuilding SME lending, intelligently

This partnership is part of Bourn’s broader mission: to rebuild SME finance around how modern businesses actually operate: in real-time, with embedded intelligence and automation.

By making enterprise-grade risk tools available via API, Bourn empowers lenders to embed lending natively and serve SMEs faster, safer, and more profitability.

Learn more at bourn.ai.