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Utah-based financial tech company Lendio Inc. says it has arranged more than $500 million in loans to over 21,000 small businesses across the nation.
The South Jordan company takes in online applications for funding from small businesses, transmits the information to lenders selected from the 75 it works with, and then goes back to the businesses with proposed terms from those willing to fund the loans. If the business owner chooses one of the lenders, then Lendio will close the deal.
"What we figured out was let's have one application [and] many lenders," said Brock Blake, CEO and a founder of the company.
And instead of having lenders contact businesses and requiring owners to respond to their questions or requests, Blake said, "We just said, 'No, we're going to handle all that.'"
Lendio's software analyzes the online applications and transmits them to four lenders based on a borrower's profile. A funding manager then interviews the borrower to narrow down his or her needs and possibilities for finding a lender.
"What we've tried to do is marry the online technology that we've built with a personal touch," said Blake.
The company is growing about 100 percent year over year in the amount of loans it facilitates, he said. The average size of a loan is $26,873.
The company has about 130 employees in Utah.
Its first loan was in the fourth quarter of 2013 to a seafood restaurant in Charleston, S.C., that wanted to buy equipment to expand the business. The loan that crossed the $500 million total mark came from American Express Merchant Financing and went to VaKA Burger Express in Los Angeles, the company said.
Lendio also franchises its services, which allows it to do local marketing and receive referrals it might not otherwise get, Blake said.