Wisetack lowered verification costs, reduced application drop-off, and increased team efficiency without adding headcount.
Katie Beach's team at Wisetack ran into a recurring issue with merchant verification. They were paying vendors to screen merchant applications, but a portion of those applications never made it into Wisetack's review queue.
"Those applications failed to reach our queue, preventing the team from taking action on them."Katie Beach, Credit Operations, Wisetack
When issues occurred, it often took several days to investigate and resolve them, frequently requiring the team to fall back on manual verification. During that time, merchants would reach out to the support team multiple times for updates, increasing support volume and pulling time away from higher-value work. By the time the team tracked down what happened, some merchants would already be exploring other financing or payment methods.
"We ended up doing the verification work ourselves. At that point, it wasn't clear what value we were getting from paying a vendor when we still had to complete the verification manually."Katie Beach
The economics of the previous setup didn't align with how Wisetack operates. Wisetack works primarily with home improvement contractors, where accurate and timely business information verification is critical to onboarding merchants efficiently. The prior vendor charged for every verification attempt, regardless of whether it produced a usable result. Low match rates meant the team frequently had to complete verification manually, while still incurring vendor costs. This created unnecessary expense and operational drag. By contrast, the new approach prioritized higher match rates and only incurred costs when verification data was successfully returned, reducing manual work and allowing the team to operate more efficiently.
It became clear that the existing vendor setup and verification workflow was misaligned with the team's needs and incentives.
In early 2024, Wisetack began evaluating alternatives. The test was straightforward: Could Enigma match or exceed their existing vendors' performance while reducing cost?
The results showed two things:
By mid-2024, Katie made the call: move Enigma to primary position in the waterfall.
July through November 2024: Wisetack, Enigma, and Alloy (Wisetack's orchestration platform) built the integration together.
The design preserved everything that worked. Wisetack's underwriters wouldn't need retraining. Alloy workflows stayed intact. Enigma slotted in as the first verification layer, with existing vendors as fallbacks.
The first three months — January through March 2025 — were active tuning.
Wisetack's team worked with Enigma to improve fuzzy matching for business name variations. A contractor filing under "John's Home Repair LLC" but applying as "Johns Home Repair" shouldn't require manual review.
The optimization paid off:
| Metric | Pre-Enigma (Feb–Apr 2024) | Peak Performance (Jan–Mar 2025) |
|---|---|---|
| Manual Review | 42% | 33% -9pp |
| KYC Pass Rate | 53% | 65% +12pp |
Reviews weren't just fewer — they were faster and cleaner. When underwriters did review applications, they were doing actual decision work, not chasing data mismatches.
"So many fewer errors."Katie Beach, Credit Operations, Wisetack
By September 2025, performance metrics showed clear improvement. Enigma delivered higher match rates, the verification workflow stabilized, and the fintech KYB vendor was no longer required in the process.
Katie's team removed them entirely.
"We actually removed them," Katie says. "We have a new workflow now, without them at all."Katie Beach
Wisetack went from three KYB vendors to two: Enigma as primary, with another vendor as backup for edge cases.
Manual review rates settled back to 43% — essentially the same percentage as before Enigma. But the quality of the process had fundamentally changed:
Wisetack slashed verification costs by more than 60% compared to their previous fintech KYB vendor. As the primary vendor, Enigma handles most verifications. Cascade calls to more expensive backups happen rarely.
All applications remain within Wisetack's queue. The team has full visibility into every verification step, no dependency on external turnaround times, and clear status updates for merchants.
When underwriters review applications, they're making actual underwriting decisions on edge cases — informed by richer data packages, not chasing mismatches.
"Oh my gosh, it's gonna be... we are very excited."Katie Beach, on briefing leadership about the economics
Manual review percentage ended up similar to baseline (42% → 43%). But the nature of those reviews changed fundamentally.
Chasing mismatches, reconciling contradictory data, double-checking work Wisetack had already paid vendors to do.
Actual underwriting decisions on edge cases, informed by richer data packages — Secretary of State filings, website verification, alternative addresses.
The technical performance mattered. But Katie points to something else when asked why Enigma succeeded where other vendors struggled:
"Y'all have been fantastic, and just so responsive. My biggest fear whenever I'm working with anyone outside the org is that sometimes it's just hard to get things fixed... You've made this not clunky or weird."Katie Beach
The partnership model worked:
And the economics were undeniable: 60%+ cost savings while maintaining quality.
Managing vendor-related issues, tracking down delayed applications, and completing manual verification work that duplicated paid vendor checks.
Consolidated verification into a single, transparent workflow. Full visibility into application status, reduced unnecessary vendor costs, and efficient reviews without increasing headcount.
The change wasn't about eliminating manual review. It was about improving the efficiency and reliability of the verification process so time and spend were aligned with actual outcomes.
Wisetack tested Enigma against existing vendors before switching. The data informed the decision.
Primary vendor position means lower overall costs. Cascade carefully.
A 42% manual review rate where you control the queue beats a 33% rate where applications drop off.
Wisetack cut verification costs 60%+ while reducing errors and improving underwriter productivity.
Wisetack is an embedded financing platform for home improvement contractors. The platform enables contractors to offer flexible payment options directly at the point of sale, helping them close more jobs while delivering a smooth financing experience.
Katie Beach runs credit operations, where her team verifies every merchant before they can start financing. Business name, EIN, ownership, address — the "Big Four" of Know Your Business.
Enigma provides intelligent business verification for embedded finance, lending, and payments companies. Our API delivers real-time KYB data — business identity, ownership, financial signals — with the context compliance and risk teams need to make fast, confident decisions.
See how Enigma could reduce your verification costs and give your team back control.