Raj Date, the former deputy director and acting head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has joined the online lending software provider Numerated Growth Technologies as an adviser and investor.
“Raj has seen the changes happening in the lending space and he sits on the board of a couple of other fintech companies that are transforming their portions of the industry,” said Dan O’Malley, Numerated's CEO. “He saw what we’re doing to transform small-business lending and he believes in it.”
Numerated, a spinoff of Eastern Bank, also announced Wednesday that it has closed $8 million in additional financing — bringing its total funding to $17 million. Current Numerated investors Venrock, FIS and Fintop Capital led the financing. Date, who is now managing director at Fenway Summer Ventures, also joined the round and Numerated’s advisory board.
O’Malley started developing a platform for making online loans to businesses when he was chief digital officer at Eastern Bank. In May 2017, he founded Numerated, with Eastern as its first bank customer. Bank clients now include
Numerated has increased its customer base and its team by 50% in the past four months, O’Malley said.
O’Malley and Date both worked at Capital One in the 2000s and stayed in touch.
“When I gave him the update on Numerated, he saw an opportunity, particularly for regional and community banks, to compete and win in business banking,” O’Malley said.
That includes competing with American Express, fintech lenders and large banks.
“American Express has said they want to be the No. 1 lender for midmarket businesses in the U.S.,” O’Malley said. “I think Raj’s and others’ perspective is there are a bunch of reasons why community and regional banks will win in the business banking space.”
