We have discussed in the past how challenging the last 2 years have been for small business owners who want to borrow money to start or expand their business. The Great Recession of the century has made banks jittery about taking on risk and lending money to small businesses. We have also mentioned some creative ways you can use to start business with little money.
Recently we came across a new startup that aims to help small business owners find lenders who are willing to give them money. The startup is called Lendio The goal of this web start up is to “help small business owners find right business loans in a matter of minutes.” According to their web site they can do this with a simple 3-step process – 1) Business owners answer simple questions about themselves and their business. 2) Lendio looks for a match between your loan needs and over 3,000 banks and other lenders. 3) Business owners apply to multiple lenders on the web site and get status updates.
The concept is similar to web based insurance broker esurance or mortgage broker Lending Tree Lendio.com is trying to bring it to the world of business loans. You can apply for many different types of business loans including – AR/PO financing, business financing, cash advance, equipment financing, business line of credit, commercial real estate, SBA loans and others.
You need to be a member to apply for loan. They have three tiers of membership plans – a free plan, basic $19.95 per month and premium $299 per month. The company is started by seasoned entrepreneurs and is backed by several prominent angel investors and VCs. On their web site they claimed to have addressed concerns about privacy and security.
If you have tried other resources unsuccessfully for business loan or are just looking for better interest rate give Lendio a try. As they say the competition is always good for customers.
Do you know of any other resources that might be useful for business loans? Do let us know in the comments.
