Leonard Curtis and Nivo launch AI-powered KYC journey for commercial lending

27 May 2026

Leonard Curtis has partnered with Nivo to roll out an AI-powered KYC and AML onboarding workflow for its funding clients.

The service uses an AI assistant as a digital team member to support client communication, secure information collection, data enrichment and report compilation, with human specialists handling judgement, risk review and escalation.

The workflow targets one of the most consistently reported pain points in specialist lending. In Nivo's discovery work with lenders and brokers, almost all firms at proposal stage reported right first time packaging rates of 50% or worse, with chasing clients for documents, checking accuracy and re-keying information cited as the dominant sources of wasted time.

Through the Leonard Curtis mobile app, Nivo, collects the initial information required, and enriches it with external data from Companies House, CreditSafe, company websites and open web sources. It identifies Directors & Shareholders, pre-populates the KYC form for applicant review, and routes the case into internal risk review and compliance where needed.

High-risk cases are escalated to human specialists with full context. Routine cases move through a faster, more consistent workflow. This creates a strong and frictionless journey for the client, which is a top priority for Leonard Curtis.

Weeks of manual back and forth, paper forms, re-keying and repeated follow ups are replaced with a secure, auditable, largely automated process, while keeping humans in control where judgement matters. The time saved enables Leonard Curtis Analysts to dedicate greater focus to building and strengthening client relationships, collaborating closely with clients and their advisers to deliver exceptional outcomes.

Ellie Woodhouse, Director of Funding Operations, at Leonard Curtis, said:

"The appeal of this project is straightforward. KYC and AML onboarding is typically time-intensive involving repeated requests, manual checks and significant administration. By using AI to handle that groundwork in a secure and controlled environment, we free our team up to concentrate on delivering for our clients and building relationships, focusing on the areas where human expertise adds the most value. We acknowledge this process can be challenging and time consuming for clients, our solution focusses on enhancing their experience which is a key priority.”

Matthew Elliott, Co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer at Nivo, said:

"We've worked with more than 100 brands in financial services and we keep seeing the same problem. Documents and information rarely arrive right the first time, and skilled people spend huge amounts of energy fixing that. This is the kind of work AI should be doing. The assistant acts like a team member on the case, gathering information, checking what comes back, chasing what is missing, pulling together external data, and handing a completed KYC output back to the team.”