Software Provider MeridianLink to Acquire FinTech StreetShares

MeridianLink, which provides modern software platforms for financial institutions and consumer reporting agencies, announced Thursday (March 10) that it intends to buy StreetShares, a FinTech for small business lending.

According to the press release, StreetShares’ Atlas Platform program lets banks and running in a fully digital business lending environment within 45 days or less. The Atlas Platform lets community lenders use data-driven tech to help with banking for smaller businesses, adding new risk assessment tools.

MeridianLink CEO Nicolaas Vlok said StreetShares was attractive because of the way it wanted to provide lenders with lending capabilities including business loans, automated decisioning and business credit.

“Adding the StreetShares team, technology, and strong partnerships with organizations like Fiserv to the MeridianLink family will accelerate our small business lending capabilities and further strengthen our MeridianLink One platform,” Vlok said in the release.

In addition, Mark L. Rockefeller, co-founder and CEO of StreetShares, said the company was glad to be working with business owners.

“Enhancing MeridianLink’s platform with StreetShares’ Atlas Platform technology will provide community banks and credit unions with industry-leading tools to better serve small business customers,” Rockefeller said.

PYMNTS wrote in 2020 that StreetShares had secured $10 million in a funding round led by Motley Fool Ventures and Ally Ventures, which is the strategic investment arm of Ally Financial.

See also: StreetShares Nets $10M To Expand SMB Lending Tech

Shortly after, the pandemic created a new need for the company’s loan providing services, with loans being requested by more lenders for the Paycheck Protection Program’s digital lending. The company almost doubled its number of clients after January 2020.