(LtoR): Eric Denson (City Community Development); Chris Calvert (SoMoLend); Cheryl Stamm (SoMoLend); Bill Fischer (City Community Development); Candace Klein (Founder/CEO, SMoLend); Candice Peters (SoMoLend small business borrower); City of Cincinnati Councilmember Yvette Simpson (City Small Business Advisory Board Co-Chair)
City of Cincinnati is the newest lender on the SoMoLend.com platform
CINCINNATI—SoMoLend (http://www.SoMoLend.com/), a leading debt-based crowdfunding platform, and the City of Cincinnati have announced a new partnership to help Cincinnati, Ohio-area small businesses and entrepreneurs gain access to the funding they need to continue to grow. SoMoLend is designed to match small business borrowers with investors looking to make a return on investment.
Through the partnership with the City, SoMoLend will identify qualified small businesses to which the City would potentially lend capital. The City would make loans of up to $400,000 in order to stimulate economic growth and job creation within the City. The partnership was approved this morning by the City’s Small Business Advisory Committee and announced shortly thereafter at a City Hall press conference.
“Our partnership with SoMoLend provides an optimal way of sourcing good deals that lead to investment in small businesses and job creation in a comprehensive way,” said Cincinnati Economic Development Director Odis Jones. “The City wants small businesses to prosper so the local economy prospers at all levels.”
Candice Peters, SoMoLend borrower and owner of the Hyde Park Body Boutique in Cincinnati, who took part in today’s announcement, describes why she chose to seek a loan through the SoMoLend.com platform.
“I was attracted to SoMoLend because their platform gave me the opportunity to submit all of my financial information in one place, and from there my information could be seen by multiple investors wanting to lend to small businesses. The funding from SoMolend has given Hyde Park Body Boutique a huge boost. We were able to purchase Spinning bikes and are now offering total body indoor cycling classes called Spincinnati. We are now in negotiations to open a second Body Boutique facility in the Greater Cincinnati area,” said Peters.
SoMoLend is a debt-based crowdfunding platform that enables small businesses to obtain the money they need to launch and sustain their operations. SoMoLend’s software is designed to use the Web to match borrowers with lenders, connecting business borrowers with investors looking to make a return on investment. SoMoLend’s goal is to help U.S. business owners secure the funding they need at the lowest interest rates possible. In addition, small businesses that apply for a loan through the SoMoLend platform will pay no transaction fees now through December 31, 2012.
Candace Klein, Founder and CEO of SoMoLend, echoed Jones’ economic development comments. “We are thrilled about this partnership. By choosing to lend on SoMoLend, the City of Cincinnati has made a very important investment in the local small business community. It is our hope that this partnership will continue to build on the level of entrepreneurship and innovation this city has seen over the last few years. I look forward to working together to help Cincinnati businesses grow and thrive.”
To learn more about SoMoLend, as well as the crowdfunding industry, visit https://www.SoMoLend.com/, http://www.facebook.com/SoMoLend, or the SoMoLend blog at http://somolend.wordpress.com/.
About SoMoLend
SoMoLend is a Web-based lending platform that uses patent-pending technology to connect small business borrowers with individual and organizational investors (lenders), executed within a hyper-localized geographic scope. SoMoLend’s user-friendly technology allows small business borrowers to obtain loans from friends, family, customers, community supporters and interested organizations, as well as from Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn connections. For more information, visit http://SoMoLend.com/ or http://somolend.wordpress.com/.