Skyro is a rapidly growing fintech company in the Philippines, offering digital consumer lending products. Committed to empowering more Filipinos by providing a range of digital consumer finance products such as product loans, cash loans and other lending products designed to meet the diverse financial needs of Filipino consumers, Skyro's mobile app offers a streamlined process, interactive map and diverse payment options, providing customers with flexibility and convenience. And it has indeed proven to be the right strategy.
In just under two years since its 2022 launch, Skyro has achieved significant milestones and business performance in the fintech industry. In 2023, Skyro achieved an average compound monthly growth rate of 50 percent. Skyro’s mobile app had an increase in its number of new and active users by 82.5 percent, leading to a proportional rise in total app downloads and usage. The brand has expanded to over 2,500 partner merchant locations and nearly 200,000 customers.
To ensure Skyro remains the leader in convenient and accessible financial solutions, prioritising cutting-edge technologies is paramount. By constantly innovating and optimising their mobile app, Skyro can streamline processes further, personalise user journeys, and offer superior customer support – all of which are crucial for retaining their rapidly growing user base and attracting new customers in the competitive Philippine fintech landscape.
Friction in customer onboarding is a major hurdle for fintech startups in the Philippines. A 2021 study by FICO reveals that three in five Filipino consumers will abandon long online banking account applications, and one in five Filipinos will drop out if asked more than five questions during onboarding. As Skyro prepared for an August 2022 launch, the team predicted it would face similar challenges in acquiring new digital lending customers.
Implementing a secure yet frictionless onboarding journey was therefore critical. Skyro needed to meet stringent regulatory requirements around eKYC (electronic Know Your Customer) processes, while also ensuring a smooth, mobile-friendly experience. Striking this balance was key to driving adoption of their digital lending products.
"We explored taking the in-house route but quickly realized we needed an integrated solution from a specialized provider," Sergey said.
Skyro's requirements included solutions for liveness detection to prevent spoofing attempts, facial comparison to matched customers against their ID photos, optical character recognition (OCR) to extract data from identity documents, and ID forgery detection to mitigate fraud risk. As building these capabilities in-house was not feasible for the young fintech startup, the management initiated a multi-month evaluation of potential vendor partners and manual verification methods.
"The timelines and technical complexity involved made partnering with an expert the best path for our launch," shared Pavel Schamberger, Head of Data at Skyro.
In 2021, Skyro decided to partner with ADVANCE.AI for its integrated eKYC and digital onboarding solution. ADVANCE.AI's solution stood out for its proven 99.9% accuracy across capabilities like liveness detection, facial comparison, OCR, and ID forgery detection, surpassing the results achieved through manual checks and providing Skyro with the confidence they needed to launch their mobile lending platform.
Skyro partnered with ADVANCE.AI to integrate their eKYC and digital onboarding technologies from the ground up.
From the start of their partnership, ADVANCE.AI has provided Skyro with the right eKYC solutions, helping them with:
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Seamless Integration ADVANCE.AI's technology seamlessly integrated with Skyro's existing systems, ensuring a smooth user experience. |
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Faster Onboarding Streamlined verification processes led to quicker customer onboarding times. |
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Enhanced Security ID forgery detection features minimised fraud risks, fostering trust with Skyro's customers. |
During its hypergrowth period, Skyro was onboarding up to 5,000 new customers daily, and having a reliable solution has proven to be vital to sustain its growth while remaining lean as an organisation. Beyond being able to scale efficiently, Skyro also trusted compliance standards of ADVANCE.AI solutions to meet local onboarding and compliance regulations, without compromising on customer experience.
"The ADVANCE.AI team's support has been very fast, without any problems at all. Our internal team constantly comments that it's a great IT product," Pavel added.
Skyro's implementation experience with ADVANCE.AI's technologies was smooth, with an intuitive integration process backed by comprehensive documentation and highly responsive support.
Both Skyro and ADVANCE.AI are committed to building a secure financial ecosystem in the Philippines. Skyro emphasises the importance of collaboration to combat fraud and establish trust in the digital finance landscape.
After a standout 2023 performance with 50% month-over-month growth, Skyro plans to triple its customer base in 2024 through continued expansion and new product launches. The company is keen to further enhance their onboarding processes by covering other aspects of risk and fraud management as the company continues to grow and expand its customer base.
"We want to build credibility as a young brand by collaborating with partners like ADVANCE.AI for eKYC, risk analysis, and fraud prevention," Pavel stated. "We're very confident and hopeful for collaborative partnership with ADVANCE.AI as we continue to grow and deliver best-in-class solutions for our customers."
In ADVANCE.AI, we're committed to working closely with our customers to deliver the best-in-class AI-powered solutions suited for your digital onboarding, risk management and fraud management needs. Speak to our team of experts today, to get your peace of mind as you innovate your tech stack to better serve your digital customers!