Kabbage Inc., which provides working capital to small businesses through its website,
Kabbage, which won one of Bank Technology News's 2012 Innovator of the Year awards, provides money to companies that sell products online at companies like Etsy and Amazon — quick. In fact, the funds are delivered to merchants in less than seven minutes. Every advance made to a merchant must be paid back within six months.
On the Atlanta-based company's roadmap is to grow out its product, forge new partnerships and enter the U.K. market.
Kabbage has raised $56 million to date.
Historically, small businesses often struggle to obtain loans from banks. Why? The origination math fails to yield financial institutions a profit. Enter Kabbage, and a handful of other companies trying to innovate the space like On Deck Capital, Lighter Capital and Capital Access Network.
"Kabbage isn't solving a new problem," Kathryn Petralia, co-founder and COO, tells American Banker.
When deciding whom to provide capital to and at what rate, Kabbage pulls from
Kabbage says it has driven more than $800 million in annual sales for its small-business customers to date. However, financing small businesses isn't its sole ambition.
"We want to be a data platform for small businesses," Petralia says. "In five years, we want to be known as the experts for small businesses — for finance or data."
