Lendsmart and Griffin Technologies, two fintech companies building software for banks and credit unions, have partnered to provide their customers a complete end-to-end solution for the Small Business Association’s (SBA) Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Together, Lendsmart and Griffin are helping community financial institutions better serve their clients, as well as alleviate the stress among small businesses applying for the loan.
By seamlessly combining Lendsmart’s AI technology to automate the SBA PPP application with Griffin’s marketing platform to reach hyper-targeted small business owners, banks and credit unions can process more loan applications while identifying and acquiring qualified SMB leads. This strategic partnership enables the two fintechs to supercharge their offerings to give community financial institutions a leg up in a competitive marketplace.
According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, more than 1.6 million small businesses have been approved for the $350 billion loan program since its launch at the beginning of April. However, many of these small businesses have struggled to understand the application and its requirements. Additionally, CNBC reported that many businesses have had trouble finding bank lenders to accept their applications.
Lendsmart’s AI-powered technology gives community banks and credit unions an end-to-end solution to automate and digitize the SBA PPP loan process, making the application easy for small businesses and allowing financial institutions to exponentially increase the number of loans they are able to process. In fact, one of Lendsmart’s customers saw a 600% increase in the number of loans processed. Furthermore, financial institutions can be easily onboarded with a custom white-labeled solution within hours.
“With financial institutions struggling to manage the high number of applications and small businesses in need of immediate funds, we saw an opportunity to speed up and simplify the mostly manual process by using our existing technology,” said AK Patel, founder and CEO of Lendsmart.
Through contextual, search, financial and behavioral insights, Griffin’s location-based marketing and analytics platform helps community banks and credit unions find and reach new, qualified customers looking for a financial institution to help them apply for the SBA PPP loan. Their software gets institutions in front of their target audience with real-time, customized messaging — increasing the likelihood of conversion by 3 times.
“When we heard of small businesses struggling to find financial institutions that could process the SBA PPP loan, we knew we needed to increase visibility around Griffin’s technology to connect them to interested financial institutions,” said Donald Hawkins, founder and CEO of Griffin Technologies. “We hope that this partnership will bring the remainder of the PPP loan funding back to its original intent of alleviating stress on small businesses nationwide.”
