Kabbage Inc., a financial services, technology and data platform serving small businesses globally, has announced the agreement on a $250-million equity investment from a subsidiary of SoftBank Group Corp. .
According to a press release, the investment is the largest equity raise in the online small business lending segment to date and brings Kabbage’s total equity raised to nearly $500 million. The company plans to use the funding to expand its lending products for small businesses and explore non-lending products and services for these customers. It will also accelerate its SaaS platform business that powers online SMB lending for global banks.
“SoftBank invests in market-leading companies that dramatically improve the customer experience and expand markets through breakthrough technology and data capabilities,” said SoftBank Managing Director David Thevenon. “We invested in Kabbage because their unique automated lending platform leverages open data networks and best positions them to empower small businesses around the world.”
Since launching six years ago, Kabbage has developed the first and only fully automated underwriting and ongoing monitoring platform, providing nearly $3.5 billion in funding to small businesses. The company, which currently operates in North America and Europe with plans to expand to Asia, has served more than 100,000 small businesses – more than any other online small business lender.
“Our partnership with SoftBank accelerates our goal of providing a suite of services to small businesses globally that is centered on real-time and persistent access to a wide variety of data,” said Rob Frohwein, co-founder and CEO of Kabbage. “SoftBank’s scale, global reach, relationships and unparalleled expertise in building transformative industry leaders make them an ideal partner for Kabbage.”
The closing of the investment is subject to regulatory and other customary closing conditions and is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2017.