Kabbage and Ingo Money to power faster loan payouts to SMEs
Kabbage and Ingo Money team up
Online alternative lender Kabbage has teamed up with push payments innovator Ingo Money to get commercial loan proceeds to SMEs that much faster, reports David Penn at Finovate.
Kabbage will use Ingo’s Push Platform, with its push-payments-in-a-box technology, to disburse loan payouts to customer accounts securely and in real time.
The partnership between Kabbage and Ingo Money helps close the gap between business loan approval – which can be completed in minutes – and delivery of funds – which can take a day more. Kabbage sees faster fund delivery as key to helping SMEs have better cash flow management and a compelling opportunity for small business owners. The company cites a Visa survey, which shows that small business owners, 70% of whom own a small business debit card, would get a new card if real-time transfers were available.
Ingo Push Platform provides modular components and customer workflows and rules that enable companies to manage their own payment process (or outsource it). The platform allows users to originate disbursements using an API, batch file, or web interface; send branded email and text notifications; securely capture and manage payment preferences and account details, and monitor payment status and access custom reports. Ingo’s technology can push money to more than 4.5 billion customer accounts, including credit and debit cards, online wallets, as well as cash from distribution locations. Ingo Money’s chief product officer, Lisa McFarland, tells PYMNTS that bringing push payments to SME lending makes the payout process as seamless as the rest of the digitised, online loan process pioneered by companies like Kabbage.
Also discussing the partnership with PYMNTS, Kabbage president Kathryn Petralia points out that the company, which has made its name as an online alternative lender, is at heart a payments company “since we’re constantly moving money to and from our customers as they use our service”. She adds that accelerating delivery of funds is also a positive because it brings transparency to the lending process.
Kabbage began the year by expanding its line of credit offering to $250,000. The new product is the largest credit line offering by an online lender and gives Kabbage the ability to serve larger businesses. Last month, the company announced a strategic alliance with New Media to improve outreach to SMEs. Also in March, Kabbage joined with Citigroup and others to form a cybersecurity consortium for fintech.
Founded in 2009 and headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, Kabbage has raised more than $1.6 billion in funding. It powers small business lending for a number of major financial institutions including ING, Santander, and Scotiabank, and includes SoftBank, BlueRun Ventures, and Mohr Davidow Ventures among its investors.
