The traditional U.S. credit system runs on a paradox: the more you need a little breathing room, the harder it is to get. Peter Maher, CEO of FLOTE — a U.S. subsidiary of ASX-listed Ovanti — wants to break that loop. His argument is simple but radical: a credit score isn't a measure of whether you can afford something today; it's a lagging record of something that went wrong years ago. In this conversation, Peter explains how FLOTE lends on real-time cash flow instead of FICO scores, why agentic AI let a team of under ten build a bank-grade risk engine, and what he learned the hard way about both credit and building a startup.

From a Spring Break Mistake to a Fintech CEO

Peter's drive to build FLOTE is personal. At 19, a credit card he took out for spring break went unpaid — a couple of thousand dollars he describes as entirely his own fault. That single mistake dragged his credit score down far enough to shut him out of apartments, car loans, and basic credit for close to a decade, even once his actual finances had recovered.

"A credit score is not an indicator of affordability. It's a lagging metric. I know what our users are going through because I've been there."

Peter Maher

That lived experience became the thesis of the company. The system, as Peter sees it, is backwards: the people who most need a small amount of liquidity are the ones it's hardest for. FLOTE is his attempt to decision people on their real financial capacity — how often they're paid, what their balances look like — rather than a number that punishes an old error.

Cash Flow Over Credit Checks — and the Other Half of America

Peter's wedge market is the roughly half of U.S. consumers who, for one reason or another, don't qualify cleanly within traditional credit systems — credit cards, conventional loans, even most buy-now-pay-later providers. One telling signal: 30 to 50 percent of U.S. retail transactions are still made with debit or cash, often because that's the only payment method available to the shopper.

"These consumers are constantly having to make the choice when they're living paycheck to paycheck: do I eat up all my liquidity to get something I need, or do I just pass on it altogether?"

Peter Maher

Rather than asking for a FICO score, FLOTE looks at real-time income data, daily balances, and actual financial capacity in the moment. The BNPL product launches anywhere Mastercard is accepted in the U.S. — tap-to-pay in store or online — not just at a handful of integrated merchants.

How a Team of Ten Built a Bank-Grade Risk Engine with Agentic AI

The obvious question is how a staff of fewer than ten builds a proprietary credit-risk engine that can stand next to far larger institutions. Peter's answer is agentic AI and machine learning. The team built the full risk and decisioning model, the platform, and a live-transaction-ready MVP in a few months on a couple of million dollars.

The deeper use of AI is in seasoning the model. A brand-new credit model needs to be tested across enormous numbers of scenarios before it can be trusted — and you can't wait to gather those one real transaction at a time. FLOTE uses multiple agents and machine learning to run the model through countless simulated environments and outcomes behind the scenes. Peter's view is blunt: if AI isn't at the core of how you build, you fall behind fast.

Compliance, Murphy's Law, and "Affordability for Good"

Any fintech has to be built for compliance first, and in the U.S. that means federal regulators like the CFPB plus fifty states that each treat lenders and cash-flow models differently. Peter says FLOTE mapped its regulatory, compliance, and security strategy before building the product — and treats it as a never-ending build, with a finger always in the air for the next regulatory shift.

His advice to founders is shaped by experience: be leaner than you think, in cash, headcount, time, and resources, and leave daily breathing room for the inevitable surprises.

"Building a startup is like inviting Murphy's Law to join you for breakfast every single day. Whatever you think you have — be leaner."

Peter Maher

The mission he keeps returning to is "affordability for good" — a double meaning. For the better: financial innovation without exploitation or debt traps. And forever: a model that can eventually extend beyond consumer BNPL into auto lending, business finance, and borderless liquidity pools that let everyday people, not just institutions, put capital to work.