Bizfi, a small business lending platform, has hired John Donovan as its CEO; after working at Mastercard, Donovan had served in several Lending Club roles, including COO, through 2012; he has since served on various boards; Bizfi is on target to lend a cumulative $600 million by end of 2016. Source
India-based platform, KredX, who focuses on providing short-term working capital to blue-chip companies, has raised a Series A round; Sequoia Capital has joined existing investor Prime Venture Partners in the round; company was founded in 2015 and has facilitated 3,000 transactions ranging from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 1 crore (approximately $1,600 to $214,000); company views invoice discounting market opportunity at $100 billion. Source
Data from Moody's and the Federal Reserve shows that marketplace lenders are significantly serving small businesses with revenue less than $1 million; demands are differing for marketplace loans from micro businesses versus established businesses with greater than $1 million; micro businesses are seeking longer-term loans while established businesses are utilizing marketplace lenders for lines of credit; source says trend toward marketplace lending and bank partnerships could help to lower rates for small businesses. Source
While fintech companies have focused on speeding up the lending process to small businesses, the IRS's continued use of fax machines continues to slow down the lending process when borrowing from traditional institutions; in an article from American Banker, the cumbersome process of getting a tax transcript from the IRS is outlined; when customers need capital on short notice they are often left with higher financing costs; Representative Patrick McHenry recently introduced the IRS Data Verification Modernization Act that aims to provide near-real-time communication of information which may level the playing field across lenders. Source
A wide range of loan options for small business funding are available; Lend Academy provides an overview of the market's credit products for small businesses in their article; loans from the Small Business Administration and large lenders have traditionally been the main focus for many borrowers however online marketplace lenders and innovative credit products such as invoice financing have greatly evolved the options for credit funding in the market. Source
Small business loan facilitator, Lendio, has secured $20 million in a financing round led by investment from Comcast Ventures and Stereo Capital; Dave Zilberman of Comcast Ventures will be joining the firm's board of directors following the financing round; the firm seeks to partner with small business lenders in order to help them find the best loan provider for their needs; they currently partner with approximately 75 loan providers; in the third quarter they helped facilitate $63 million in loans for small businesses, an increase of 93% from the third quarter of 2015. Source
The small business lending approval rate from banks nationwide was 23.5% in October, while support from institutional lenders helped marketplace lending platforms to increase their small business approval rate to 63.1% nationwide, according to data from the Biz2Credit Small Business Lending Index; the economy also has been steadily improving with GDP and jobs increasing; however uncertainty over the election has affected the broad market which has seen nine of the past 10 days reporting losses in the stock market and another recently delayed rate increase from the Federal Reserve; following the election, consumers and businesses will be closely watching the affects on the economy and interest rates specifically as the country's new president influences credit markets, marketplace lending and fintech overall. Source
DealStruck, an online lender for small and medium-sized businesses, has stopped originating loans; the industry environment and slowdown in investor capital has affected the company; the firm's CEO Ethan Senturia said, "Although we are not currently originating new loans, we are continuing to provide our clients with the high-level of service they have come to expect from us."; he also noted, "we’ll be looking for strategic options to allow us to continue delivering on our mission to provide unique, appropriate and affordable financing to small businesses nationwide." Source
Harvard Business School has released a comprehensive report on the state of small business lending and its current landscape; Lend Academy provides more details in their article with insight from author, Brayden McCarthy of Fundera; paper includes details on the evolution of online lending within the small business lending market; goals of the paper include laying a foundation for regulatory reform and exploring how online small business lenders can partner with banks. Source