Tailwind is a fintech from Riga (Latvia), offering a simple tool for cash flow planning, as they call it.
I talked to Kārlis Mikoss – CEO & Co-founder at Tailwind – on why the cash flow planning tool is essential for SMEs and banks.
From the left to the right: Lars-Erik Hion and Kārlis Mikoss
SMEs do not plan their cash flows, because they don’t have their resources (time and people) to do it manually, and there is no automated tool on the market that will make it possible for SMEs to predict their financial future. Which is life-saving for SMEs! The liquidity gap is the main issue why SMEs bankrupt. I personally can relate to that! Even having financial and banking background I don’t do my company’s cash flow forecast because I don’t have time for that, and because I do count that my counterparties will pay me in time (which is not always a case, of course). I do see a need and I am surprised that banks haven’t integrated massively BFM modules into their digital apps. It’s a great tool not only to help SMEs manage their financial flows but also the best tool for contextually embedded finance (!).
Tailwind is one of the very few solutions on the market (another one I can recommend is Strands. We did a number of webinars with them. One of the latest you can watch here)
Kārlis says they target with their tool mainly professionals, service companies, and marketing offices at the moment. These are less covered by the financial organizations segments. The main part of banks are focusing on financing manufacturing, trade, or e-commerce, while service companies have remained without attention. To avoid liquidity issues these companies should first start by planning their cash flow. In an automatic, non-stressful way.
In the case of Tailwind, they:
- Visualize the flow of the customer’s planned transaction.
- Forecast account balance on any future date.
- Auto-sync it with the customer’s bank account to benefit from automatic updates when transactions happen.
And it’s also interactive, customer can click and move the transaction (bubble), in case a particular counterparty paid earlier or later, to the right or the left, and the platform calculates the forecast automatically. So, no need to put figures into rows and columns at all. It looks very simple, and actually, allows include SMEs into the process of forecasting their cash flows.
In addition, Kārlis (who has a banking background as well) mentions that for the banks it’s easier to work with SMEs that plan their cash flows, they just become financially stronger and can understand their needs to finance their liquidity a little bit earlier, before they have liquidity issue, and can apply for a loan in time.
You can try the Tailwind demo version here.
