 Lendio logo | |
| Industry | Small business loans |
|---|---|
| Predecessor | FundingUniverse |
| Founded | 2011 |
| Founder | Brock Blake, CEO [1] Trent Miskin, CGO Brett Child, EVP Sales |
| Headquarters | , United States  |
Key people | Chad Iverson, COO Ben Davis, Chief Revenue Officer |
| Website | www |
Utah-based Lendio [2] (formerly Funding Universe), [3] founded in 2011 by Brock Blake and Trent Miskin, is a free online loan marketplace in the U.S. targeting small business owners. [4]
Lendio's predecessor, Funding Universe (FundingUniverse) [3] [5] was a pay-to-pitch [6] on Inc.'s list of 'the fastest-growing privately held companies.' [3] They stopped charging "amid the criticism." [7]
The name FundingUniverse was an outgrowth of the FundingUtah that Blake and Miskin began in 2006. [4]
Founded in 2006 as FundingUtah, , [4] it became FundingUniverse and, by 2011, Lendio. [8] CEO Blake [9] [1] has served in that role to each.
Founded in 2011, Lendio facilitated its first loan in Q4 2013. In 2014, it coordinated $12.4 million in funding to more than 400 small business owners. By 2015, the company had expanded to $128 million in financing, [10] helping more than 5,100 small business owners in all 50 states.
In October 2016, Lendio raised $20 million [11] in funding from Comcast Ventures and Stereo Capital with participation from existing investors Napier Park, Blumberg Capital, Tribeca Venture Partners, and North Hill Ventures. By 2016, it had delivered over $250 million in total funding [12] to more than 10,000 small businesses.
Launched [13] in early 2017, the Lendio Franchising program is the world's first franchised online lending marketplace; it has since grown to 100 franchise territories nationwide, and facilitated $430 million to over 7,000 small businesses [14] across the U.S.
In Q2 2018, Lendio reported [15] 90% year-over-year revenue growth. In October 2018, Lendio announced it had serviced $1B of total loans to over 51,000 small businesses across the country, providing $3.8B in economic output.
In April 2018, Lendio announced [16] its lender turndown program, which allows lending partners to offer Lendio's marketplace of loan options to small business owners that do not fit the lender's credit box.
Lendio also works with the following organizations to better serve the small business community:
In Q1 2020, Lendio announced it had secured $55M in a Series E Funding Round. [18] In the first month of the Paycheck Protection Program during the COVID-19 pandemic, Lendio onboarded hundreds of lenders to help facilitate what would eventually amount to $8 billion in loan approvals for over 100,000 businesses. [19]
Lendio's platform reviews metrics including the business's financial projections, use of funds, industry, and monthly revenue to find loans option for borrowers. The platform uses a series of questions to predict which loan type will most likely match a business owner's qualifications. Each borrower is also assigned a funding manager to answer questions through the entire process. Lendio's online application process takes an average of 15 minutes to complete, compared to an average of 25 hours filling out traditional lending applications. [20]
Small business owners are offered financing options including credit cards, lines of credit, short-term specialty loans and long-term traditional loans. [20]
LendingClub is a financial services company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It was the first peer-to-peer lender to register its offerings as securities with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and to offer loan trading on a secondary market. At its height, LendingClub was the world's largest peer-to-peer lending platform. The company reported that $15.98 billion in loans had been originated through its platform up to December 31, 2015.
Funding Circle is a commercial lender. Originally it was a peer-to-peer lending marketplace that allowed the public to lend money directly to small and medium-sized businesses. Through this exchange businesses access lower costs of financing than they would get at a bank and the public are able to become lenders and in doing so make a return on their capital. It closed its lending option to "retail investors" between 2020 and 2022, and then announced, in March 2022, that it had made the closure permanent.
NerdWallet is an American personal finance company, founded in 2009 by Tim Chen and Jacob Gibson. It has a website and app that earns money by promoting financial products to its users.
CircleUp is a financial technology company based in San Francisco that focuses on consumer goods startups. Since its official launch in April 2012, CircleUp has helped several consumer companies raise equity, including Back to the Roots, Halo Top Creamery, Little Duck Organics, Rhythm Superfoods and others. General Mills has an investment fund that is partnered with CircleUp to invest in companies listed on the platform.
iwoca Ltd. is an online credit financing company based in London. It offers credit facilities to small businesses trading in the UK and Germany via an automated lending platform. CEO Christoph Rieche and CTO James Dear founded iwoca in October 2011 and the company started trading in March 2012. They aimed to offer custom-built loans to small businesses, who usually struggled with fair access to finance from big banks. To start with, these were exclusively e-commerce businesses, but in April 2014, iwoca began lending to all types of small businesses. By July 2015, it was reported to have seen 250% year-on-year growth in issuance.
source of business financing refers to the means by which an aspiring or current business owner obtains money to start a new small business, purchase an existing small business or bring money into an existing small business to finance current or future business activity. There are many ways to finance a new or existing business, each of which features its own benefits and limitations. In the wake of the financial crisis of 2007–08, the availability of traditional types of small business financing dramatically decreased. At the same time, alternative types of small business financing have emerged. In this context, it is instructive to divide the types of small business financing into the two broad categories of traditional and alternative small business financing options.
LendInvest is a non-bank mortgage lender in the UK, and is a property lending and investing platform. As an alternative Fintech lender in the property market, LendInvest provides finance to property professionals and small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) around the UK. It also makes it possible for individuals, corporates and institutions to invest in secured property loans originated and underwritten by its mortgage team.
SoFi Technologies, Inc. is an American online personal finance company and online bank. Based in San Francisco, SoFi provides financial products including student loan refinancing, mortgages, personal loans, credit card, investing, and banking through both mobile app and desktop interfaces.
Avant, LLC, formerly AvantCredit, is a private Chicago, Illinois-based company in the financial technology industry. The company was established in 2012 by serial entrepreneur Albert "Al" Goldstein, John Sun, and Paul Zhang. Initially structured as a mid-prime lender, the company issued its first personal unsecured loan in early 2013 using its proprietary technology to determine an individual's creditworthiness.
StreetShares, Inc. is a financial technology company and small business funding marketplace based outside of Washington, D.C.
LendingPoint is a financial technology platform. The company looks at a person's complete financial picture, taking into consideration credit history, employment history, earning potential, and other data to determine creditworthiness. LendingPoint gives access to more affordable loans for consumers with credit scores between 500 and 850 and discounts traditional creditworthiness factors, such as FICO scores, debt-to-income (DTI) ratios, and payment-to-income (PTI) ratios. It was founded in 2014 by Tom Burnside, Franck Fatras, Victor J. Pacheco, and Juan E. Tavares.
Cross River is an American financial services organization that provides technology infrastructure to fintech and technology companies. Based in Fort Lee, New Jersey, Cross River services its clients with embedded payments, cards, lending, and cryptocurrency, and is an FDIC member. Cross River is noted for its embrace of the trend in the financial services sector towards API-based payment platform services.
SuperMoney is an online financial comparison platform that helps consumers evaluate financial services. It is headquartered in Santa Ana, California.
Groundfloor is an American real estate investing and lending marketplace. It was the first real estate crowdfunding company to achieve SEC qualification utilizing Regulation A+ since the regulation became operable through the JOBS Act.
Biz2Credit is an online financing platform for small businesses. The company provides direct funding to small businesses across the United States. The company is known for its financing products, educational resources for business such as the BizAnalyzer, and research that it publishes periodically, including the Small Business Lending Index, and its subsidiary SaaS business lending platform Biz2X.
Opportunity Fund is a US-based nonprofit organization that provides financing to underserved small-business owners.
Brock Blake is founder and CEO of Lendio, an online marketplace for small business loans. Blake is an Inc. 500 CEO, speaker, and Forbes columnist.
Tide is a UK financial technology company providing mobile-first banking services for small and medium-sized enterprises. It enables businesses to set up a current account and get instant access to various financial services.
Credible Labs Inc., commonly known as Credible, is a financial technology company headquartered in San Francisco. The company also does business through its subsidiary Credible Operations, Inc. Its online marketplace offers consumers the ability to compare and refinance loans, mortgages, and other financial products from lenders. Credible became a subsidiary of Fox Corporation in 2019. In December 2021, Credible acquired digital insurance platform Young Alfred, adding various kinds of insurance including home, auto, and pet to its platform.
Upgrade, Inc. is an American neobank founded in 2016. It has raised $600 million in equity funding and made over $10 billion in loans since its launch in 2017. Upgrade is headquartered in San Francisco, California with offices in Phoenix, Arizona and Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The company offers credit and banking products to consumers and delivers fixed-rate credit cards and loans. The company's other services include credit monitoring and education tools.
$375,000 in angel investor backing .. through FundingUniverse
While a few companies succeed in securing a check, most go home empty-handed.
amid the criticism. ... FundingUniverse LLC stopped charging