Lendsqr vs Evolve Credit: Which loan management software is right for you?

To thrive in the consumer and SME loan industry, adopting a robust loan management software is imperative. However, with the abundance of available choices, selecting the right platform, be it Evolve Credit or Lendsqr, requires careful consideration. Join us as we compare their features, uncover overlaps, and highlight distinctions to guide your decision-making process.

About Evolve Credit

Evolve Credit is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company that provides lending infrastructure for Africa and emerging markets. Evolve Credit’s cloud lending platform helps lenders, businesses, and other credit institutions to manage the entire lending process. It offers its service to various industries such as healthcare, financial services, collection agencies, and more. It was founded in 2019 by CEO Akan Nelson and CTO Daniel Osineye and is based in Lagos, Nigeria.

About Lendsqr 

Lendsqr is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) fintech providing end-to-end lending technology, algorithm, and network to small and large lenders for them to lend at scale, sustainably, ethically, and profitably. Lendsqr is on a mission to simplify the lending process with a simple but sophisticated technology that can guarantee an awesome lending experience. It was founded in 2018 by CEO Adedeji Olowe, with its headquarters in Lagos, Nigeria.

Getting started

When starting with any loan management platform, it’s essential to consider how straightforward and swift the setup process is. 

To start with Evolve Credit, lenders must schedule a personalized demo consultation. This step ensures tailored solutions that align with each lender’s unique needs rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.

With Lendsqr, there’s no need for phone calls to kickstart your lending operations. You can sign up and approve your first loan within minutes, possibly the fastest in the market. And we’re 100% in agreement with that.

Channels

Channels are essential for loan management. They can either help or hurt your business’s accessibility. 

Evolve Credit offers a web app and a white-label mobile app for managing loans. While simple, this setup covers essential lending functions.

Lendsqr goes beyond by offering a digital banking experience via its web application. It extends its services beyond lending to include support for savings, investments, airtime, and bill payments, all of which can be customised to meet individual requirements. If you are a rapidly growing lender targeting the retail market, you can get our mobile apps, which come in 3 variations. 

1. Progressive Web App (PWA); a cheaper alternative for Microfinance Banks (MFBs). It can be delivered in one week. 
2. White label; fully skinnable with colours, text and branding,
3. Customisable mobile app

Lendsqr provides USSD functionality to reach underserved markets. Its web SDK feature enables lenders to integrate extra services such as “Buy Now, Pay Later” (BNPL) or embed loan services directly onto their websites. Moreover, the loan invitation feature allows lenders to upload prospects and send SMS and emails to customers.

Manage your loan products and portfolio

Lendsqr and Evolve Credit include portfolio management features, allowing lenders to monitor and manage their loan portfolios effectively. 

Evolve Credit’s end-to-end loan management platform, Configure is highly customizable, allowing lenders to tailor loan products, workflows, and processes to fit their unique needs. Whether managing an existing portfolio or expanding into new customer segments, lenders can do it all from one adaptable platform without extra costs.

Lendsqr’s loan management platform empowers lenders to effortlessly create, customise, and oversee various loan categories tailored to their borrowers’ needs. This includes the flexibility to edit, activate, or deactivate specific loan products, ensuring that loan offerings are fine tuned to suit the lender’s target market. 

Make smarter lending decisions

Evolve Credit and Lendsqr offer decisioning capabilities, enabling lenders to make well-informed decisions throughout the loan cycle. 

However, Evolve Credit allows lenders to assess borrowers’ creditworthiness with sophisticated algorithms and thorough Know Your Customer (KYC) processes. Lenders can also run credit checks with a click of a button and integrate multiple credit bureaus and alternative data sources for smarter decision-making.

On the flip side, Lendsqr offers lenders a variety of customisable decision models tailored to their specific business needs. These robust models feature over a hundred risk control parameters. The most practical approach involves duplicating and adjusting the existing model as required. 

It’s also worth noting that Lendsqr maintains the largest blacklist database of fraudsters and bad actors in Nigeria, providing significant risk protection for lenders.

Get loans repaid or recover debts

Evolve Credit enables lenders to disburse loans instantly from the platform to borrowers’ bank accounts using one-click disbursement. It also facilitates automated payouts and disbursements securely and promptly using local payment networks or a custom channel of preference. Additionally, Evolve Credit integrates with Paystack, Remita, Flutterwave, and Lidya Collect, giving lenders multiple collection options, including wallets, bank transfers, mobile money, and direct debit mandates. Features like full loan liquidation allow borrowers to pay off their loans by covering the current principal and interest, with subsequent repayments requiring only the principal amount.

Lendsqr, on the other hand, offers a plethora of payment integrations with the best payment providers, such as Paystack, Remita, Monnify, and NIBSS. Our lenders can use international payment channels like Stripe, Helcim, and GoCardless. Lendsqr also gives lenders the freedom to automate payment collection with a direct debit mandate and provides ethical debt recovery methods with technology using tools such as schedulers and AI algorithms (to determine the best time for payment collection).

Verify customer identity and data

Evolve Credit enables lenders to collect financial information securely and ethically, financial data such as bank statements directly from financial institutions during loan application. Lenders can also verify Identities by automatically verifying borrower IDs, addresses, bank accounts, and more.

On the other hand, Lendsqr offers KYC configuration using tiers. Customers can be categorised into tiers based on the information and documents they provide, giving you greater control over your lending decisions. 

Lendsqr also provides identity verification and liveness detection features to safeguard against identity fraudsters. Liveness can be pretty expensive, which is why Lendsqr developed its proprietary engine to offer lenders superior and cost-effective alternatives for these critical KYC requirements. In addition, the Lendsqr mobile SDK API allows you to ethically spool data from customers’ mobile devices to enable you to make smarter credit decisions.

Branches and teams 

Lendsqr, unlike Evolve Credit, allows you to manage and streamline your customers and their transactions with branches and teams. Say, for example, you want only team A or Branch B to see their customers. This feature allows you to do this. Your team’s staff can only see and manage customers assigned directly to them.

Collaborators and integration

Lendsqr simplifies integration for our lenders, providing all the essential APIs upon sign-up. This means you can join and start lending in minutes without the hassle of dealing with multiple tech providers.

Lendsqr offers integration to multiple credit bureaus at an affordable fee, an in-app chat experience for lenders’ loan apps with Freshworks, and lots more. 

Evolve Credit offers lenders a limited number of external integrations compared to Lendsqr. Collaborators include the CRC credit bureau for data, Mono for bank statements, Providus for BVN verification and virtual wallet, and others.

APIs for integration

Evolve Credit offers an API-driven credit infrastructure solution with end-to-end solutions like Configure.

Lendsqr offers a developer-friendly platform called Adjutor. This platform includes useful APIs like the account verification API, which checks the authenticity of customer account details. Also, there are decisioning APIs such as Karma, Ecosystem data, and Risk Assessment Criteria (RAC) API, allowing customisation of risk control parameters to suit your loan business needs. 

Others include payment APIs and APIs for loan embedding. Find out how to use Lendsqr APIs to power your loan app.

Pricing structure that fits your needs

Typically, the determining factor in any purchase is the associated cost.

Evolve Credit’s pricing is significantly more expensive, with tiers like Accelerate starting at N250,000/month and Enterprise starting at N1,125,000/month. For the final pricing tier, Enterprise Plus, contact the team at Evolve Credit.

On the contrary, Lendsqr’s pricing model provides greater flexibility and transparency. With pricing plans like Starter at N40,000/month and Pro at N200,000/month. Lendsqr also operates on a subscription basis, offering a grace period to retain access to subscribed features until funding or downgrading to a free plan. Simply put, there’s a payment option suitable for every lender.

Match your loan business needs

As you approach this pivotal decision, take a moment to assess your budget, technical skills, and desired level of control. Lendsqr and Evolve Credit offer solid loan management solutions, each with strengths.

Consider your financial situation carefully and compare the costs and benefits of each platform. Evaluate your team’s technical abilities – will they need extensive assistance, or can they handle things independently?

Ultimately, your choice will significantly impact your lending operations. Whether you opt for the robust features of Lendsqr or the plainer approach of Evolve Credit, your decision will shape the future of your loan business. So choose wisely, as it will set the course for your success.