Scotiabank customers in Canada and Mexico will now be able to apply for a small business loan up to $100,000 after a partnership with Atlanta-based Kabbage.
Kabbage automates funding to small businesses by analyzing activity like accounting data, online sales, and shipping. The process of applying for loans will reportedly take less than seven minutes, and the company said that it will combine the convenience of six or 12-month loans with the flexibility of a line of credit. Scotiabank will leverage Kabbage to automate onboarding, underwriting, servicing, and ongoing monitoring.
“The Scotiabank-Kabbage partnership is another significant milestone in the bank’s digital transformation. Scotiabank is embracing technologies that drive new and improved experiences for its customers worldwide,” said James O’ Sullivan, group head of Canadian banking at Scotiabank. “Small businesses are a very important customer segment in our journey, and this partnership is an example of how banks and FinTechs are working together to provide customers with a better banking experience.”
The bank stresses that businesses will have the flexibility to draw the funds as individual term loans, from $1,000 (specific to Canada), up to the approved loan amount. Each loan will have its own repayment terms within a few minutes.
“Scotiabank combines the agility of a progressive and technology forward company with the strength and stability of its position as a leading global bank. Today’s announcement further demonstrates the scalability of Kabbage to power lending for organizations worldwide,” said Rob Frohwein, co-founder and CEO of Kabbage. “Working in markets as diverse as Canada and Latin America together with the U.S., Europe and Australia cements our position as the most advanced data and technology platform in lending.”
Scotiabank is slowly phasing in the lending program in Canada and Mexico. It will begin piloting the service to at least 100,000 current non-borrowing small business customers in these two launch markets.