When Max Chmyshuk, together with his co-founder Archit Tiwari, set up Juno Technologies to build a complex AI-driven SaaS product from scratch, he wasn’t just chasing the AI wave, he was solving a pain he knew intimately.

After co-founding one of the UK’s first digital business lenders, Fleximize, 11 years ago, Max saw the growth-limiting drag that came with processing loan applications manually. He knew that even the most ambitious lenders were afraid to scale their origination, not because of capital or opportunity, but because they simply didn’t have the operational capacity to handle the volume.

“Some lenders were afraid to even run marketing campaigns. If 100x more applications came in, they just couldn’t cope.”

That bottleneck was exactly what Max set out to break through with his new venture: Juno AI, a fintech startup that builds AI-powered “loan officer agents” designed to handle the time-consuming workflows behind business loan processing from the first point of contact with an applicant or an introducer to packaging the deal into a decision-ready credit paper.

From Banker to AI Builder: The Origin Story

Max met his co-founder, Archit Tiwari, during a cohort at Zinc VC, a London-based incubator focused on mission-driven companies. The two clicked immediately, both obsessed with solving real problems for small businesses using cutting-edge tech.

“We knew we wanted to help streamline business and property lending for SMEs, and we knew AI could be a lever. We just had to figure out where it would deliver the most value.”

Their first concept was ambitious: a digital CFO that could help small businesses plan funding needs. But the tech wasn’t ready, language models hallucinated numbers, and trust was non-negotiable.

“We had to scrap that idea. But two years later, the tech’s finally catching up. Now we’re experimenting with some of those early ideas again.”

Instead, they pivoted to something even more immediate: helping lenders and brokers process loan leads faster, more accurately, and without needing to scale headcount.

What Juno AI Actually Does

Juno AI isn’t just automation, it’s an AI employee that plugs directly into a lender’s workflow. It reads emails and attachments, extracts key data, flags inconsistencies, pulls in third-party info via APIs, and even chases missing information, all before a human sees anything.

“We’re not making the final loan decisions, but we’re making a lot of the ‘no’ decisions and teeing up the good ones. We’re saving 90% of the time analysts used to spend.”

Here’s a stat that turns heads:

  • Processing 100 applications manually takes ~55 hours
  • With Juno AI? Just 4.5 hours

That 10–12x productivity boost means lenders can scale without worrying about analyst bottlenecks, and startups can get leaner while growing faster.

Traction Across Four Lending Verticals

In just a year, Juno AI has landed paying customers across two lending verticals with advanced pilots running in two more:

  • SME lending (Max’s home turf)
  • Bridging & development finance
  • Asset finance
  • Residential mortgages

“Every client has their own SOPs, but the core problem is the same: messy, inconsistent, time-consuming processing. That’s what Juno cleans up, enabling lenders to scale.”

Each AI agent comes “pre-trained” on lending workflows and finance logic, then gets custom-trained with the client’s own rules and processes, just like onboarding a new analyst.

“We actually tell clients: onboarding Juno is like onboarding a finance grad. Give it your SOPs, decision trees, trigger points, and it gets to work.”

Growth Through Credibility, Not Clicks

Juno’s go-to-market motion has been refreshingly old-school: relationships, credibility, and founder-led selling.

“We used our networks, and I spoke at events like Asset Finance Connect. That’s how we landed some of the biggest lenders.”

Outbound efforts via LinkedIn and email have been key, but Max is also investing in content marketing, not hype, but clarity.

“In finance, hallucinations aren’t cute. People need to know what parts of AI work and what don’t. So we’re creating content to educate, not oversell.”

Advice for Founders: Build With, Not For

Max’s journey hasn’t been linear, but it’s been intentional. And if there’s one lesson he wants to pass on, it’s this:

“Start small. Don’t build some massive all-in-one solution and hope someone needs it. Work with real users. Our first client was a small broker. We built Juno feature by feature around their needs.”

He also cautions against over-engineering in the early days:

“You’ll rewrite everything two or three times anyway. Might as well rewrite it based on real feedback.”

Even with a $1M pre-seed round now secured (led by Fuel Ventures), Max is keeping the scrappy, customer-driven DNA alive.

“The temptation is to go wide. But we’re staying focused – proving value, case by case, in real lending environments.”

What’s Next for Juno AI?

With traction building across sectors and a proven ROI on time saved, Juno AI is ready for its next chapter.

But Max’s vision goes beyond efficiency, it’s about giving lenders the confidence to grow again and founders the playbook to do things right.

“We’re not here to just automate workflows. We’re here to help lenders grow fearlessly. And if our journey helps other founders do the same, that’s even better.”