Kabbage – Company Profile

Founded in 2009, Kabbage is an Atlanta-based financial technology company. At the time of its launch, the company primarily focused on providing loans to small businesses. Over the years, a number of new services and solutions have been added for small businesses. It includes business checking, invoicing tools, cash flow management and payment processing.

The company utilizes advanced tech to ensure a seamless experience for its customers. Provided that applicants meet the desired criteria, they can easily access funds within just a few clicks. It is the company’s mission to simplify financial related activities for small businesses, so that they can focus on running their business.

History

The idea for Kabbage came to its founders when they noticed that banks were primarily focused on providing funding to large businesses. Small businesses usually had to go through a lot of effort to secure a loan from conventional funding institutions such as banks. In view of these factors, Kabbage founders realized that they can use technology to help small businesses get the funding they need. The idea was to use artificial intelligence (AI) to make funding for small businesses a lot more efficient and hassle-free. Use of technology also ensured that lending risks are reduced. Kabbage was also able to make higher profits with their AI-enabled lending platform.

Kabbage’s AI enabled system can take quick decisions about an applicant’s loan application. It can quickly analyze vast amounts of data to arrive at a decision in minutes. In comparison, a bank could easily take several weeks to process a loan request. During its initial years, Kabbage usually focused on providing credit to online and e-commerce businesses. But now it covers a wide range of brick and mortar businesses as well. As compared to banks, Kabbage requires minimal documentation.

Funding

Kabbage has received investments worth $2.5 billion via 16 rounds of funding. Some of the key investors include SoftBank Capital, Reverence Capital Partners, Mohr Davidow Ventures, Thomvest Ventures, BlueRun Ventures, Lumia Capital, Scotiabank, TriplePoint Ventures, Santander InnoVentures, ING, UPS Strategic Enterprise Fund, Victory Park Capital, and Credit Suisse. In 2020, Kabbage was acquired by American Express.

Acquisitions

Kabbage has acquired two companies till date. The first acquisition was that of Orchard Platform in 2018. The company was focused on developing advanced technology solutions for institutional investors and lenders. The second acquisition was Radius Intelligence in 2019. The company was functional in data intelligence domain.

Competitors

Kabbage competes with other fintech companies such as OnDeck Capital, Fundbox, BlueVine, LendingClub, Headway Capital, CAN Capital, IOU Financial, Fundera and Lendvo.

About the founders

Kabbage was founded by Rob Frohwein, Kathryn Petralia and Marc Gorlin. All three continue to be associated with the company. However, they have also launched their own new ventures. For example, Rob is the co-founder of Drum Technologies and currently serves as its CEO. Similarly, Marc has founded Roadie Inc. and currently serves as its CEO.