Finder's annual Innovation Awards have one aim: to find and recognise Australia's most innovative companies everywhere, from payment services to insurance to household appliances.
Innovation is not simply about being better than the competition, it's about how you get there. And for Finder this means offering something that's better, faster, smarter and hopefully, something no one else is doing.
There are only a select number of finalists in each category and this year, Beforepay was recognised in the top four in both the lending innovation and online customer service categories.
The Online Customer Service category is designed to celebrate brands that are changing the way their customers work through issues for the better. Beforepay stood out from the crowd for being quick to adapt AI into their systems and processes, making it easier for customers to reach a resolution.
Finder's judges were impressed by Beforepay's subtle integration of AI enhancements into its customer service processes. Rather than putting the bots upfront where customers have to interact with them, Beforepay uses AI tools behind the scenes for internal processes, allowing staff to provide customers with personal support.
This is a refreshingly people-first approach at a time when AI chatbots are common, and frequently disappointing when faced with real, complicated human problems.
The Lending Innovation category is open to all types of lending businesses from credit unions and home lenders to BNPL providers and neobanks. Again, Beforepay’s submission came out as the cream of the crop placing it in the running to take home gold later this month.
For the lending innovation category, Beforepay also uses AI tools to improve its risk assessment protocols. AI allows Beforepay to work out what's actually happening in a customer's financial life by detecting pay cycles, spending and income patterns. This makes it easier to model and predict behaviour and set personalised limits and loan amounts.
A lot of human effort goes into making clever and innovative automated tools that actually work for customers. Beforepay's approach puts people at the centre with innovative tech that works powerfully, but quietly, in the background. Sometimes the best innovations are ones so good the customer can't even see them.
This isn’t the first time Beforepay’s been recognised in the Finder Awards. Beforepay has also been recognised in the Finder Customer Satisfaction Awards two years in a row.
In 2023, Beforepay was highly commended in the ‘Pay Advance’ category and in 2024 they were recognised as a ‘Loved’ Pay Advance brand with ‘Quality Service’.
For the Customer Satisfaction Awards Aussies rate brands within a product category across a range of metrics, including 'features and benefits' and 'customer service'. Finder worked with leading data, insights and consulting company, Dynata to survey customers and collect their responses.
This year, Beforepay scored particularly well for ease of application as well as their features and benefits. 86% of customers said Beforepay is a reliable and trustworthy brand.
The Finder Innovation Awards is an annual search for the most innovative people, teams and brands in Australia. Now in its ninth year, this year’s Awards covered 19 categories spanning lending, insurance, customer service and more.
For more information about each finalist, head to the Finder Innovation Awards homepage.
Richard Whitten is a money editor at Finder, and has been covering home loans, property and finance for over 6 years. He has written for Yahoo Finance, Money Magazine and Homely, and has appeared on radio shows nationwide.
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