In this episode of the Connector Podcast, host Koen Vanderhoydonk interviews Zoe Van Eseldijk and Justin Pesch of Pair Finance, a fintech that has re‑imagined debt collection through AI and behavioral science. The conversation covers Pair Finance’s core proposition – a data‑driven, highly personalized debt‑recovery platform that leverages over 10 billion data points and 30 000 possible communication paths to achieve up to 15 % higher recovery rates than traditional agencies. The guests explain how an in‑house behavioral science team creates template snippets that feed a reinforcement‑learning algorithm, allowing the system to adapt tone, timing, channel and payment options to each debtor’s profile. They highlight the advantage of a single, scalable platform that operates in more than 11 European countries under local debt‑collection licences while complying with the EU AI Act and other country‑specific regulations. The discussion also details the use of generative AI for inbound queries, currently handling 80 % of messages automatically with a goal of 80 % full resolution by end‑2026, freeing human agents for complex cases. Pair Finance’s business model is presented as an outsourced solution for banks and merchants, offering one contract, one dashboard, and full data transparency. Finally, the guests share their growth strategy, event participation, and future technology roadmap, emphasizing continued AI integration into both customer‑facing and internal processes.
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Welcome to the Connector Podcast, an ongoing conversation connecting fintechs, banks, and regulators worldwide. Join CEO and founder Koen Vanderhoydonk as you learn more about the latest available trends and solutions in the markets.
Welcome to another podcast from DFS, live streaming In the connector podcast, we do this for many years, and we continue to do that for a long time. But today, I've got Pair Finance with me, and Pair Finance is rethinking debt collection. Zoe, Justine, can you please introduce yourself and also your company?
Yes. So I'm Zoe Van Eseldijk, business development manager at Pair Finance in the Benelux team. I've been working here for two years.
Yeah, I'm Zoe's colleague, and I've been also working for two years at Pair Finance as a senior business. Business development manager, and also happy to be here.
And what does the company do?
So, Parfinance is a fintech that specializes in AI-driven debt collection services. I can tell you a little bit more about it.
Yes, please.
So we noticed that in today's digital world, the need for technology and consumer interaction to go hand in hand is very important, especially in the service industries. So to stay relevant, companies have to adapt to this and be more in line with what the digitally native consumers need. Pairfinance was founded to modernize an otherwise very traditional sector. So the debt collection industry still uses a lot of outbound calling and physical letters. This frustrates both the people and the brands that are involved. So our founder, Stefan Sticker, recognized that the data-driven performance marketing was actually a way that could make debt collection much more empathetic and effective. Because we realize most debtors aren't insolvent. They're actually overwhelmed by poor communication and a lack of digital options. So we use AI and behavioral science to personalize every interaction with over 10 billion data points and 30,000 individual communication paths. So this results in a more digital, customer-centric process with higher recovery rates, up to 15% higher than traditional players.
I'd like to zoom in a little bit on the behavioral part. Is that okay?
Yeah, of course.
What does that mean?
So we have our in-house behavioral science team that creates— basically, not only do they study the debtors that we come across, but they also create little template snippets that is then used by the algorithm to approach every debtor in an individualized manner. So this is our behavioral science background is our team that's doing research, constantly working on better ways to approach debtors.
I also saw that you're active in more than 11 countries in Europe. And what struck me in looking at your website is one international AI platform.
Yeah.
What does that mean?
It means that compared to or in contrary to the traditional debt collection agencies, which often have different legacy systems from in different countries. We develop one platform that's scalable across all those countries. And that's an advantage for international players because they have one platform, one contract, and therefore it's much easier for them to work with one party because they have one dashboard, full transparency of the data, and that's unique for a debt collection agency in Europe.
If you talk about debt collection in Europe, is there also regulation that is applicable for all the countries? And is that the same?
Some regulations like the EU Act on AI, that's for all European countries. But of course, there is also local legislation and we adapt to that specifically. Or for example, payment methods. So in Belgium, you have different preferences in payment methods than in the Netherlands. And we adapt the workflows according to the local methods that are applicable. Also, for example, the regulation on the ware letter in Belgium or the VIC letter in the Netherlands. We can adapt workflows according to the local practices.
I also read AI approaches debt collection with 30,000 options and one goal. It's actually to get the money. How do you use that?
Maybe to intervene. Yes, of course, to get money, but also to get in contact with the consumer. Because in the end, it's still the client of our clients, so the consumer. And we want to make the experience as best possible, as much, or the best possible for the consumer, but also for the client. So yes, recovery is important, but also retention is really important.
No, I get that. I think user experience is key in everything you do.
Exactly.
And that was also the sort of the question I wanted to go to is AI is nice, but how do you bring emotion to the equation, which is a part that's today still lacking on the AI side?
So what we see is AI-driven solutions actually offer a lot of potential advantages. It allows us to bring this emotion, what you're talking about, by greater personalization, context of our communication and also improved adaptability features that are especially relevant in moments of financial friction, which is quite uncomfortable for a lot of people, obviously. So we're using an AI technology called reinforcement learning to do this. We see that in using this algorithm, we're able to have it constantly improving itself, and it rewards itself whenever certain milestones are reached. So for example, whenever we are able to get somebody to open a message or an email or even answer it, that is what we deem a reaction, a positive reaction. So the algorithm will continue to optimize based on different parameters like the tonality of the message, also the timing, the frequency, the channels used to contact, and also the payment solution itself, which is then fully personalized to each debtor. So an example would be, Based on a certain data profile, we see a business person who we think will react in a certain way at a certain time. We'll send them a message on Monday morning at 8:30 AM when we think they'll check their emails. They'll be very happy rather than a student who will probably open the emails after they roll out of bed at 11:00 AM or something like this.
I can imagine.
If they were anything like me as a student. This will be a way that our AI algorithm is able to adapt to each person, adapt the strategy.
Well, I can imagine that traditional financial institutions, they also need to do debt collection, but they're probably not as advanced as you guys. So that brings me to the point of outsourcing. They probably use you as a tool. So what would be a good reason to use you guys instead of doing it themselves?
So just to make it clear, other debt collection agencies aren't using our software. We build our software. No, it's okay, because this is a question we get quite often. So we build our software, and we're also the ones carrying out the debt collection activities. So let's say somebody buys a pair of pants from Zalando, they don't pay, Zalando sends them a few reminders, and they'll end up— then they'll send us the claim, and we will take over from Zalando to try and recover the money. So we start then with an amicable debt collection phase and try, based on what the algorithm decides, to contact this person in the best way possible.
Okay, I'm learning, so thank you very much. So does that then also mean that you are a regulated company?
Yes, of course.
And in what regulation do you fall?
So we have a debt collection license in all the countries in Europe that we're active in, essentially.
And that's also a passportable license?
License? Well, it's a local license. So in every different country, we have a regulation that we have to apply to. But this can be the debt collection legislation, but this can be AI legislation. It can be different kinds of legislation depending on if it applies to us. But of course, for example, the EU Act on AI, we have to comply with that.
Yeah. So that makes it super interesting because the reason why I was asking on passporting is that's a very common practice for banks or PSPs and all of that, but it's not applicable to you. So that I'm even more surprised and amazed that you have one single platform, to be honest.
Yeah, we see that a lot of traditional players technically, they work in different countries, but they have a very fragmented approach because they acquire different systems every time they expand to a new country. So they're not able to have one platform for all of the countries. So their international clients then also get a bit frustrated because they're not using the same software everywhere, right? But since we built our own software, we have made it so that it's much easier for the clients, the creditors themselves, to access not only the data they have about their consumers, but also the data that we've been collecting, the behavioral data that we've been collecting throughout the debt collection process. So they have one login essentially for all countries that they're active in, one contract, one contact person taking care of them.
What brought you actually to Digital Finance Summit?
Well, when we started in the Benelux 2 years ago, we thought it could be a good idea to connect to other fintech players. And therefore we joined Belgium Fintech and Holland Fintech. And this was one event that they are hosting. So it was obvious that we would participate here.
No, I agree. And I think there's definitely a part, maybe that's just me, but there's also an educational level because I have been learning a lot in this podcast. So I'm very grateful for that. And I'm sorry that I didn't know.
Yeah, we're meeting, especially this morning, for example, we met a lot of different kind of people in different areas that we are not aware of and where we can benefit from in terms of knowledge, in terms of network. So it was really, really, really nice already. And it's Not even lunch yet.
Exactly. We're only halfway. So it's only the good start, the good part out only to start. Exactly. Well, so you explained me that you need like companies come to you. I guess you then do other consumers events as well as only fintech events.
Yes. The point only is that if you go to real consumer-oriented events, we went there last year in the Netherlands. The companies that want to work with us are often coming to special events like the Credit Expo, because if they are looking for a solution like us, they will go to that event. And so for us, it makes more sense to go to these kinds of events than to the consumer event.
Okay.
But in terms of development, it could be interesting to go there. But in terms of meeting potential clients, it's best to go to the experts event.
No, no, I get it. I get it. What I also learned today in the podcast is that you guys are like hyper-focused on behavior, on AI, on all the latest technologies. So maybe a very sexy question to ask here. How do you see the future changing in terms of technology applicable on your business?
Well, we started the company in 2016 in Berlin. We have since then grown to a lot of different countries, and we've been using this AI technology almost since the beginning. Since 2018, we were able to roll this out for our outbound communication. So for quite some years now, we've been working on improving our processes and our software, and our AI algorithm has been learning a lot and becoming smarter thanks to the reinforcement learning. So I think the moon is the objective, right? We can keep on going, keep on building our processes to a very exciting extent. And we see that especially in the debt collection world, which is very traditional. Some other parties are just starting with this now, but we're already almost 10 years ahead of them. So we continue to grow, continue to work on our processes, and From a technological perspective, we're starting to adapt AI a lot more into our internal processes as well. So not just in our core business outbound communication, but also just to make our internal processes much smoother, faster. But then of course, with this inbound communication that we do, thanks to generative AI, we're also able to continue automating some aspects of our services in this sense. So anytime a debtor has a question for us, They will, of course, be able to contact our human customer service team if they wish to do so over the phone.
As long as they are human still.
No, they will be. They will be. Because there's always some aspects by which you need a human to answer the phone, right? Especially since with debt collection, it's something that is quite personal and quite emotional for a lot of people. They want to be able to speak to someone if they call. However, if they're sending a message or an email, which is something that we get as you can imagine, in very large volumes on a day-to-day basis. To better help them, we have created a fully automated AI agent, which is able to respond to these recurring messages with very, let's say, simple requests, like asking for an installment plan.
Mm-hmm.
Or saying that they have a dispute on a claim, or perhaps saying that there's a fraud case. These are questions or comments that we get from debtors constantly. So by having this AI agent, it allows us to reduce the backlog. We're able to already scan 80% of the customer inquiries in this way and fully resolve 40%. And our goal for next year is to get this to— Our goal for next year is to get this to 80% by the end of 2026. So 80% fully resolved inbound messages by our AI agent. So this is a development step that we're working on.
And the good thing is that our actual debt collection agencies that do the 20% have more time to help the people that have a real need to talk to a real person.
I can imagine.
Yeah.
Well, we're almost at the end of this podcast. Time flies when you're having fun, especially on my end, learning a lot. So I'm very grateful here. How can people contact you?
So you can contact us easily via LinkedIn, Zoe van IJsseldijk or Justin Pesch. You can also contact us via the website. We have a page for businesses who are in need of debt collection services. You can just send us an email and we'll reach out to you asking for some more information on what you're looking for.
And we will make sure that we'll put the contact details below in the details of this podcast. So thank you very much for participating. Thank you also to the audience and please stay tuned. More fun tech news.
Thanks for listening to another episode of The Connector Podcast. To connect and keep up to date with all the latest, head over to www.jointheconnector.com or hit subscribe via your podcast streaming platform.
