Biz2Credit’s funding affiliate was approved as a lender for the SBA Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) established under the CARES Act. This makes Biz2Credit a fintech approved by the SBA as a non-bank lender under the PPP. Following this approval, Biz2Credit will continue to use its online lending platform to help small businesses apply for government-backed PPP loans.
The Paycheck Protection Program was established by Congress under the CARES Act to stabilize the economy by providing low interest financing to small businesses and help them keep their employees on payroll. If businesses maintain their pre-COVID-19 pandemic staffing levels, these SBA-guaranteed loans can be forgiven.
Biz2Credit has helped its customers secure PPP loans since the program started last month, and now can do so directly through its funding affiliate. The company estimates upwards of $1.5 billion in demand for PPP loans from its customers, who are concentrated in industries that have been hardest-hit by coronavirus lockdowns, including many minority-owned businesses located in the New York City metropolitan and tri-state area.
“We are thrilled by the designation as an SBA approved lender, as now we can start providing these loans directly to small businesses across the country as PPP funding availability permits,” Rohit Arora, CEO of Biz2Credit, said. “Many of the smallest businesses — often women-owned and minority-owned companies that are chronically underserved by banks — have encountered tremendous difficulty in securing PPP funding. We will leverage our technology and more than a decade’s worth of experience in small business lending to help companies that desperately need this money. We are ready to help.”
Biz2Credit’s digital funding platform verifies a borrower’s revenue streams and expenses, including payroll. Biz2Credit can now further assist eligible small business customers in applying for government-backed loans through the company’s funding affiliate to keep businesses solvent.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the fact that countless small businesses do not have either the cash reserves to operate for more than a few weeks on their own without assistance or ready access to desperately-needed working capital,” Arora said. “The ability to directly offer forgivable, low-cost PPP loans to our customers will enable us to help thousands of small businesses at this critical time.”
Founded in 2007, Biz2Credit has arranged more than $3 billion in small business financing.
