19 SME Financing Rockstars in the US FinTech Landscape in 2019

Where do entrepreneurs go for small-business financing? Banks may not be an obvious answer for this. SMEs (with <500 employees) account for ~99.7% of the total employer firms in the US and contribute nearly half of the non-farm GDP of the nation. Only three out of every four of these SMEs manage to get adequate financing through loans, credit cards, venture capital, or crowdfunding. While recent surveys indicate that banks have planned to grow their small-business lending operations in 2018–2020, FinTechs had identified this SME financing gap in the US a long time ago and have established themselves as alternative financing options for the SMEs.

According to the American Bankers Association, For now, non-bank alternative lenders have the upper hand on efficiency… Operating expense as a percentage of outstanding loans run at approximately 6% at banks that use traditional processes, compared to less than 2% at the non-bank alternative lenders.

While banks may try to play catch-up, FinTechs continue to make a difference in the US’ SME financing landscape. Here’s a look at 19 such SME financing FinTech firms in the US:

1. Kabbage was founded in 2009 and has raised $489 million in total funding. Kabbage provides SMEs with a line of credit by evaluating various alternative data parameters. It leverages data generated through business activity such as ...