Fintech Ramp, the spend management and corporate card provider, has launched a lending partner network “to help customers find better long-term financing options.”
As mentioned in an update shared with CI, partners “include Stifel, Capchase, Live Oak Bank, SmartBiz Loans, Lighter Capital and Founderpath.” This follows “the recent launch of Ramp Flex, which allows businesses to make bill payments on flexible terms (up to 3 months).”
Small and midsize businesses often “struggle to access long-term debt, owing to the complexities of the lender landscape” (which include predatory fees, stringent capital limits, and more) — a 2022 Fed Reserve survey found that “only 30% of U.S. small businesses received the total financing they were seeking from their bank last year.”
Being able to make investments in long-term growth initiatives like buying a property, expanding headcount, expanding into new markets or making acquisitions “is critical and yet frequently out of reach for many businesses, stifling their ability to expand.”
To combat this, Ramp is partnering “with a variety of lenders that solve these pain points by partnering across three financing options — revenue-based financing, Small Business Administration (SBA) loans, and venture debt — to provide businesses with the capital they need to grow.”
As covered last month, Ramp, the first finance automation platform and corporate card designed to help businesses spend less, announced an expansion of its platform that “enables businesses to finance all of their bills in one place.”
Bill Pay, its accounts payable automation product, will now “offer businesses the option to make payments on flexible terms through its new Flex solution.”
Bill Pay will also “support companies with multiple entities and integrate with all major accounting software providers.”
Ramp helps eliminate “the need for businesses to secure additional credit to finance critical operating expenses (e.g. inventory), which are not widely available and require separate management, or hold excess cash, which is expensive and inefficient.”