Get a business loan in hours? For Asia’s fintech startups, that’s the promised land.

For many startups and small enterprises, cashflow comes in fits and starts. Banks consider these companies risky, causing some loan approvals to take weeks. Interest rates are pegged high, between 18 to 30 percent a year. But for startups struggling to meet payroll, waiting often isn’t an option.

Several startups, however, believe they can improve the financing prospects for young enterprises, and in the process help these companies get on firm footing. For Asia’s optimistic and go-getting middle class, this couldn’t have come at a better time.

Singapore’s ApexPeak has what’s called invoice financing, a service which turns invoices into cash in as soon as five days. That means service providers can receive cash before payment is due. ApexPeak made a move recently that could speed things up – acquiring Dubai-based startup Cashnomix (price tag unannounced). While also an invoice financing firm, the latter has a few things that ApexPeak lacks: a presence in the Middle East, and a prototype credit scoring algorithm for invoices.

“The Cashnomix risk model solves a dilemma that has troubled the UAE for years. Credit data on companies are sparse, so making an underwriting decision is labor-intensive. The algorithm we’ve built collects signals from a large variety of sources to determine a score and a confidence index for each invoice”, says Sujith Kurup, founder of Cashnomix, who will now become the managing director of Middle East operations at the acquiring company.

ApexPeak has many features which speed up loan processing. It removes paperwork by getting sellers to upload their invoices digitally. Instead of running in one jurisdiction, it operates in 25 countries, eliminating the friction of cross-border transactions. Pair the fast processing speed with the ability to transact one invoice at a time, and you get a service that gives enterprises flexibility instead of making them stick to a lump sum term loan.

The company’s co-founder Gakim Solomons says that integrating the algorithm could speed up underwriting for loans. “Today, we can provide SMEs with an answer in five days. Tomorrow, we will be able to approve transactions in a fraction of the time.” All it’ll take is for a small enterprise to upload an invoice onto ApexPeak’s platform, which will do the rest. This speed boost is crucial for ApexPeak’s growth – five days is hardly spectacular as some banks offer business loans that can be approved in a day.

ApexPeak’s success will depend on its growth and the ability to stay liquid to finance the loans. The startup declined to reveal exact traction and growth numbers, but it has maintained a zero default rate and a treasury of about US$1.3 billion.

Automatic social proofing

ApexPeak isn’t the only one harnessing algorithms to determine trustworthiness. Tech in Asia reported on Lenddo, a Philippine startup that can automatically figure out the credit worthiness of a loan-seeker – by looking at their social media activity. It’s a rich source of information that could be more useful than looking at credit card and digital transactions, which banks currently do. For people living in cash-based economies, credit card spend won’t be an accurate gauge of a person’s trustworthiness.

It sounds like a far-fetched idea, but the startup appears to be progressing well. It has access to the data of over one million users, and has raised US$14 million in funding from Accel Partners and other investors. Now, it’s now preparing to take its algorithm beyond approving personal loans, given that it has a default rate in the low single digits.

Telcos can use Lenddo to verify the ability of postpaid subscribers to pay. Online buyers and sellers can now quickly verify the trustworthiness of the other party. Dating sites can use it to ban troublemakers. Also, pre-employment screening can take minutes instead of two weeks, and it’ll cost a fraction less.