Zoot Enterprises, a provider of advanced origination and decision management technology, today announced a partnership with Slope, an AI-powered credit and risk infrastructure company backed by Sam Altman and Y Combinator, to integrate SlopeScore into its platform. Through this collaboration, Zoot clients can enhance commercial risk assessment with more precise, transaction-driven insights.
SlopeScore is the first cash flow underwriting score purpose-built for SMBs. Powered by a patent-pending categorization engine with a large language model (LLM) at its core, it transforms raw banking transaction data into structured, credit-grade signals, including counterparties, intermediaries, modalities, and locations. In a pilot with a major U.S. bank, SlopeScore unlocked nearly $1 billion in new credit originations and improved approval rates 14% over FICO alone.
Underwriting for SMBs has long depended on bureau data, manual processes, and fixed credit limits. These approaches can fall short when evaluating thin-file businesses or supporting real-time decisioning. SlopeScore uses live transaction data and AI-driven categorization—achieving 99% accuracy across income, debt, and rent categories—to deliver a clearer, predictive view of a business’s financial health, improving underwriting precision and decision accuracy.
“Traditional approaches to SMB underwriting don’t always reflect how businesses operate today,” said Bob Lonergan, Head of Partnerships at Zoot. “By adding SlopeScore, we’re giving clients a more dynamic way to assess risk.”
Within Zoot’s platform, SlopeScore adds a new dimension of credit signal available to clients, providing a more complete view of SMB creditworthiness. This allows organizations to strengthen underwriting strategies without replacing their current frameworks, adding incremental predictive lift where traditional methods may lack coverage.
With SlopeScore, lenders can:
- Approve more SMBs with limited or thin credit bureau histories
- Unlock new profitable originations from existing customer data
- Complement traditional credit scoring with orthogonal, cash-flow-based risk signals
“Consumer cash flow scores have proliferated, but SMBs have been left behind because the data is more complex and consumer-first models can’t handle it,” said Lawrence Lin Murata, Co-founder and CEO of Slope. “Integrating SlopeScore into Zoot’s decisioning platform gives lenders a purpose-built cash flow signal that works alongside their existing data, not as a replacement, but as the layer that makes everything sharper.”
Zoot enables organizations to turn complex data into near instant, risk-aligned decisioning at enterprise scale. The addition of SlopeScore continues to build on Zoot’s ability to support complex credit programs with greater flexibility and control.
To learn more about incorporating SlopeScore into an organization’s credit strategy, please contact Zoot.
Casey Ferguson
Director Marketing
Zoot Enterprises, Inc.
casey.ferguson@zootweb.com
Riley Lico
Marketing Lead
Slope
riley@slopepay.com
About Slope
Slope is defining a new category of credit and risk infrastructure with SlopeScore, enabling real-time cash flow underwriting and credit insights for businesses. Its specialized AI models transform raw transaction data into credit-grade features, powering responsible lending for SMBs and beyond.