Finovate Blog

Online alternative lender Kabbage has teamed up with push payments innovator Ingo Money to get commercial loan proceeds to small and medium sized businesses that much faster. 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 more. Kabbage sees faster fund delivery as key to helping SMEs have better cash flow management and a compelling opportunity for small business owners. In its statement, the company pointed to a Visa survey that showed that small business owners, 70% of which 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 told PYMNTS.com that bringing push payments to SME lending makes the payout process as seamless as the rest of the digitized, online loan process pioneered by companies like Kabbage.

Also discussing the partnership with PYMNTS, Kabbage president Kathryn Petralia pointed 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 added that accelerating delivery of funds was also a positive because it brought 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 small and medium-sized businesses. Also in March, Kabbage joined with Citigroup and others to form a cybersecurity consortium for fintech. The company earned a spot on Forbes Fintech 50 for a second time in a row this year,

Founded in 2009 and headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, Kabbage demonstrated its Kabbage Card at FinovateSpring 2015. With more than $1.6 billion in funding, Kabbage powers small business lending for a number of major FIs including ING, Santander, and Scotia Bank, and includes SoftBank Group Corp., BlueRun Ventures, and Mohr Davidow Ventures among its investors.

We interviewed Kabbage’s Petralia during FinovateFall 2017 last September. Check out her conversation with Senior Research Analyst Julie Muhn on How to Make it as a Small Business in Fintech.