OakNorth

Rishi Khosla and Joel Perlman founded OakNorth in London with a precise diagnosis of a gap in British business lending. Fast-growing small and medium enterprises — companies with revenues between roughly five and fifty million pounds — were systematically underserved by traditional banks. Too large for microfinance products, too small to command the attention of large corporate banking divisions, these businesses fell into a credit grey zone where obtaining a loan meant months of process, extensive documentation, and frequent rejections. OakNorth was built to serve exactly this segment with tailored loans, fast decisions, and a human approach to credit assessment. But the real engine of innovation is the OakNorth AN platform — a credit intelligence system powered by AI that analyzes both structured and unstructured data to build granular risk models for each individual loan. Rather than applying aggregate statistical frameworks — the standard approach of large banks — OakNorth constructs a detailed analysis of the specific industry, local market trends, and competitive dynamics of each borrowing business. This approach has enabled OakNorth to issue loans in days rather than months, while maintaining exceptionally low default rates throughout its history. That credit performance track record has persuaded major global financial institutions to license the OakNorth AN platform for internal use — a B2B SaaS revenue stream that transforms OakNorth's underwriting capability into a product sold to banks worldwide, creating a second high-margin revenue center alongside the direct lending business. OakNorth's valuation has reached 2.8 billion dollars, with investors including SoftBank Vision Fund. The dual model — direct lending to growth businesses plus a licensed credit intelligence platform — is one of European fintech's most original demonstrations that value can be created not just through superior user experience, but through the analytical infrastructure that underlies lending decisions.