This week, Lendified (www.lendfied.com), Canada's newest online lender, launched its 24/7 wholly web-based operations. Lendified is the first online lender in Canada to be owned and operated by entrepreneurs with significant banking credentials. It is also solely focused on supporting the working capital needs of Canadian small businesses.
Troy Wright, the founder and CEO of Lendified, and Kevin Clark, its President, bring a combined 60 years of executive banking experience to their business. Their goal is to reinvent how small business people acquire working capital and cash flow support – quickly, digitally, and by eliminating the pain points between loan application and the receipt of funds.
"It's our experience that for many small businesses, their access to credit from traditional banks is challenging." said Wright. "They either don't fit the bank's risk profiles or just can't afford the time away from running their businesses to put in the hours and hours of time it takes to provide traditional credit sources with the information required to process their application."
Wright said, "That application process can take weeks, and at the fast pace that small businesses operate, that's just too long. During that time, whatever opportunity that small business wanted to take advantage of could be gone, and with it the potential for that business to grow."
In 2013, Industry Canada issued a report stating that the Canadian SME loan market is valued at between $90 billion and $100 billion. Another survey conducted by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) estimated that in 2012 the charter banks rejected, on average, 18.4% of small business loan requests. Wright and Clark are addressing this lost opportunity by re-examining the typical risk factors of lending to small business people.
"Technology has allowed us to develop proprietary tools to examine not only traditional credit reports," said Clark, "but also some key drivers of small business, such as online endorsements, Twitter followers, customer comments, and the backgrounds of the people who own and operate their business. And, we can do this very quickly."
Wright and Clark created Lendified so that small businesses could borrow money on their own terms, whenever they want to, and from any desk top computer, tablet or smartphone. They also operate Lendified with best-in-class rigour and the governance structure of a financial sector leader.
"Technology is a magnificent facilitator," said Clark. "But it does not replace the need for expertise and experience in meeting the working capital needs of our borrowers. We have to operate in way that inspires trust from everyone we do business with."
Wright said, "Kevin and I know that the best way for a small business to grow is for the owners to invest more capital in them. We want to provide them with this capital in way that allows them focus on what they do best, that is, managing their businesses."
Lendified is located in Toronto, Ontario. It is accepting loan applications, online, from small businesses across Canada at www.lendifed.com.
