OnDeck is one of the market's leading small business online lenders and they have taken an active role in industry self-regulation specifically around improved transparency for business borrowers; in their featured blog post they discuss the market's landscape and their lending technology partnership integration efforts; they also provide details on their involvement in developing industry best practices through development of the Association for Enterprise Opportunity and the Innovation Lending Platform Association; this involvement has resulted in the creation of the SMART Box which they also detail in their blog post. Sponsored Blog Post
Fellow Finance is a Finnish P2P lender; the new offering will allow businesses to turn trade receivables into cash; invoices will be placed on the marketplace for investors; the loans will be offered in addition to traditional business loans; Jouni Hintikka, CEO of Fellow Finance, stated: "Financing a trade receivable is one of the easiest and most reasonable ways for companies to acquire working capital. By financing an invoice, a firm immediately receives its money, which accelerates money circulation and supports the growth of the business. The invoice finance service by Fellow Finance is technologically a forerunner compared to traditional services and operators in Europe." Source
ApplePie Capital is the marketplace lending leader in franchise business loans; in their featured blog post, CEO Denise Thomas discusses the investment opportunity that the firm's platform presents and ApplePie Capital's business model; cites five reasons for investing in franchise debt including the stable, high single-digit to low double-digit returns with lower risk than many of the market's competing fixed income products. Sponsored Blog Post
UK online lender Funding Circle has announced it will be slowing its property lending with plans to fully end the product by mid 2018; the firm is primarily focused on SME lending and says the refocused strategy will help it to increase SME lending and shift its resources for international expansion; property loans have previously only been available to UK borrowers and the product has accounted for approximately 5% of the company's revenue. Source
The Federal Reserve made several changes to the Main Street Lending Program on Monday that should result in more businesses...
Fifth Third Bank will expand its partnership with Accion US Network which provides access to a network of small businesses; the initiative will focus on increased lending for underserved small businesses in Florida, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Ohio; the effort is also an extension of the bank's five-year, $30 billion Community Commitment and will utilize $10 billion allocated to small business lending, product innovation and enhanced underwriting and fulfillment for this alternative lending channel. Source
It has been reported that Kabbage is interested in acquiring OnDeck Capital. S&P Global recently published an analysis of a potential deal. This week Kabbage announced a new originations milestone of $3 billion since inception. We take a closer look at the originations and pro forma estimates of the two companies provided by S&P Global.
OnDeck's annual originations have increased from approximately $15.9 million in 2008 to $2.40 billion in 2016. Estimates from S&P Global show combined loan originations for the two firms of $3.82 billion for 2016. In addition to synergies from similar balance sheet and securitization funding sources, S&P Global also notes the increased value Kabbage could likely bring to OnDeck's line of credit product. Pro forma estimates put line of credit originations at approximately 50% for the combined entities. Kabbage has considerable expertise in small business line of credit lending and it's a product OnDeck launched in 2013 and has recently been focused on. Source
Through the partnership Zoho will offer Fundbox credit products to its customers in the US; Zoho is a cloud-based operating system for businesses; Zoho's customers rely on the system to manage their finances, invoices and working capital; with the Fundbox partnership, businesses can now easily connect with Fundbox for credit solutions to manage their cash flow planning. Source
Funding Circle has rebranded with a new website and logo; the rebranding is centered around a focus on expansion and growth; in regards to the rebranding, Chief Marketing Officer Darryl Bowman said, "We are hugely passionate about helping thousands more businesses and investors across the world and today's rebrand is the next step on this journey."; since launching the firm has facilitated loans to 32,000 businesses and estimates it has helped support the creation of approximately 80,000 jobs. Source