The Problem
Limited Coverage and Self-Reported Application Information Increased Risk
OatFi underwrites a broad mix of mid‑market businesses including professional services, retail and manufacturing. But each application carried the same critical challenge: incomplete data made it hard to confidently assess what the business actually did, and subsequently verify they were who they said they were.
Legacy providers returned “no results found” +10% of the time. Manual reviews ballooned as OatFi’s analysts opened website tabs, scoured public filings, and tried to reconcile scant data from legacy providers. The process slowed decisioning, increased risk of approving the wrong businesses, and even led to potentially good borrowers being rejected.
[From legacy providers] We’d get a name and maybe an address, but it was difficult to get a clear, detailed picture of what the business actually was..
Understanding a business’s true industry is essential for accurate KYB and risk evaluation. Yet other providers often returned rigid NAICS codes or relied on whatever industry code the applicant self-selected. Applicants often chose the wrong code – or intentionally picked a lower‑risk label – leaving Lippitt and team to sort fact from fiction.
Some high-risk business activities were difficult to detect, whether unintentionally misclassified or deliberately obscured, due to limitations in the legacy NAICS code system. In some cases, businesses engaged in activities like cannabis sales appeared under generic labels such as agriculture or e-commerce. Without deeper signals, these risk profiles could slip through unnoticed.
OatFi needed richer data, fresher insights, and broader coverage to ensure they were only onboarding businesses that truly met their criteria.
The Solution
Baselayer’s Industry-Leading KYB Delivers Scoring and Deep Context
With Baselayer, OatFi replaces guesswork with hard data. Through direct integrations with all 50 Secretary of State databases, over 3,000 federal and state courts, and proprietary sources like the Baselayer Fraud Consortium and Business Identity Network, Baselayer gives OatFi unmatched coverage and up-to-the-minute insights. Its intelligent similarity matching cuts down false positives and uncovers more complete, trustworthy business profiles.
All of this data is distilled into a single, explainable KYB rating – from A to F – incorporating everything from lien and litigation checks to TIN matching and entity status. Instead of juggling fragmented tools and spreadsheets, Mike’s risk team evaluates each business through a unified interface that brings full context into view.
When a deeper dive is needed, analysts turn to the Baselayer console, where original source filings, website snapshots, and contributing risk signals are presented side by side for faster, clearer investigation.
One of those signals is industry classification, an area where Baselayer goes far beyond self-reported data. Its AI models enrich inputs by cross-referencing government records and analyzing a business’s web presence, even when no URL is provided. The result: more accurate, objective classification and real-time detection of misreported or high-risk sectors.
“I’m a big fan of the keyword‑based industry prediction,” Mike says. “I can craft my own verticals, group businesses by bespoke categories, and feed that nuance straight into our models.”
The Result
Fewer Manual Reviews. Fewer Failures. Better Discovery and Coverage.
Since switching to Baselayer, OatFi has reduced KYB driven manual reviews by 52% and failed business searches by 10.5%. Among businesses missed by previous vendors, Baselayer successfully located and classified them 88.5% of the time, expanding coverage and eliminating blind spots.
With richer data and more accurate classification, Mike’s team spends less time chasing down missing information and more time improving the credit models that help fuel OatFi’s growth. Deceptive applications are filtered out earlier, riskier industries are flagged automatically, and onboarding continues without delay, unlocking growth without increasing risk.
“The [Baselayer KYB and risk] coverage is great, and the data is detailed enough that I can spot patterns, craft variables, and feed them back into our models,” Mike says.
Baselayer now plays a critical role in OatFi’s underwriting process – delivering in-depth KYB intelligence and giving the team the clarity it needs to fund the businesses that truly deserve a “yes” while walking away from the wrong ones.
