ORLANDO, FL—Fountainhead Commercial Capital has launched a new commercial real estate loan evaluation system, Pronto, that uses artificial intelligence to provide loan approvals within two hours, the company says. The company specializes in SBA 504 transactions, and Fountainhead executives expect Pronto to accelerate closing times for the entire SBA loan process, whittling a few days off the timeline.
“Today's entrepreneur demands quick decisions, but many banks and commercial lenders are still in the stone age when it comes to approvals,” says Chris Hurn, Fountainhead's CEO. “We streamlined an historically time-consuming and arduous process so that business owners can now make fast decisions and get back to running their companies.”
Hurn says the most time-consuming aspect of the streamlined process revolves around producing the appropriate financial documentation. With this information in hand, borrowers can drag-and-drop documents into the Fountainhead system. The company says beta users have often completed the application process in less than 15 minutes.
The Pronto system runs through a secured interface on the Fountainhead website. Borrowers or their representatives fill out key information fields and then drag-and-drop financial documents into the secure file system. Fountainhead's software then reads documents such as tax returns, financial statements and business debt schedules among other documents. Within a few minutes, the Pronto system reviews the files, applies the real estate transaction data to its underwriting guidelines for qualifying deals and then produces a detailed loan approval letter, auto-populating relevant numeric and alphanumeric data.
Although securing appraisals, environmental assessments, and Certified Development Company (SBA) financing may still take a few weeks, the approval time for the private sector component has been changed significantly, Hurn says. The Pronto system, which launched earlier this month, may be accessed here.
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Paul Bubny
Paul Bubny is managing editor of Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com. He has been reporting on business since 1988 and on commercial real estate since 2007. He is based at ALM Real Estate Media Group's offices in New York City.
