Tech tool rates applicants on 'kindness' - not just credit score

In the wake of the massive security breach by Equifax, a Victoria-based company is getting attention for developing a new screening tool that looks beyond credit scores to assess the suitability of would-be renters and borrowers.

The company, named Certn,rates potential tenants and borrowers using databases that analyzetheir social and behavioural profiles instead of purely financial criteria.

"A credit check doesn't really assess how clean or credible or kind an applicant is," Andrew McLeod, a CEO of Certntold On the Island hostGregor Craigie.

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Last month, the software company took a welcome piece of hardware back to their eclectically furnished downtown office, which features a black helicopter that was a prop in the film Oceans Eleven.

It was anaward worth $10,000 from the BC Innovation Counciland the non-profitNew Ventures BC Society, recognizing the year-old companyas the province's top regional startup.

McLeod said the company compiled110 different databases into the largest risk-relevant database in the world. It includes information such aseviction records, complaints andnegative news stories about individuals.

"If someoneshowed up on a fraud watch list in India or Chinaor Japan, our database is able to pull that information and give our lenders or our customers the information they need to make the right risk decisions," he said.

The company developed algorithms in consultation with scientists and psychologists toanalyze how individual data profiles reflected reliability orrisk.

McLeod saidmost people don't realize employers and landlords are already looking at their social media profiles and applying their own biases to photos of a potential client or tenant's friends, partners and weekend activities.

Saw need for screening

All three CEOsat Certnworked atVancouver-based company Rentmoola, which developed the first app that allowedtenants in Canada to pay rent online or with a credit card.

McLeodsaid the triosaw the need in the tight rental market of Vancouver and Victoria for a screening tool that would allowgood applicants to stand out for qualities besides a high credit score.

"If your credit isn't the best youcould be the cleanest best renter in the world and you may never have had a credit card," McLeod said.

"You can't get access to that place. So we saw a real need and decided to start something on our own."

Qualifying fora rentalis less of a concern for the staff of the startup since the companymoved to Victoria from Vancouver.

"I joke that our staff in Vancouver could afford to live in their van, and here they can afford to buy a house and a van," McLeodsaid.

With files from CBC Radio One'sOn the Island