Cleaning out some (paper!) files recently, I ran across an Online Banking Report article I wrote in 1997 about Bank of Montreal’s pioneering online mortgage application. It was the first time anyone had put a mortgage app online and one of the first online credit apps of any kind.** Naturally, we were excited about it, naming it the biggest innovation of the year.

Unfortunately, we didn’t track when the first business loan application went online, but it was likely a few years later, let’s call it 2000/2001. So, the capability has existed for 20+ years. But as you can see from the chart below, the digital SMB lenders began in earnest during and immediately after the 2007/2008 financial crash. Ten of the 36 largest were started in the 2007 to 2012 period.

Digital Lenders: Year Founded

Prior to 2008 >>> 6
2008 to 2011 >>> 7
2012 to 2015 >>> 12
2016 to 2019 >>> 6
2020 or later >>> 4

Small Business Lender of the Month*

1-Page, 1-Minute Application

Larger Offers | Lower Rates | Longer Terms | Business Line of Credit Funds in 24 Hours.

Apply Today!

NEW: Looking for digital banks, lenders, payment providers, insurance or digital accounting for small businesses? Check out our latest lists: SMB online lenders (33) | SMB challenger banks (12) | SMB insurers (15) | SMB charge cards/expense management (16) | Billpay & invoicing (16)| Payment processors (7) | Subscription processors (7) | SMB digital accounting/bookkeeping (21)

The FAB Score Ranking (Fintech Attention Barometer) is a proxy for the size of a private fintech company.

Digital Lenders Ranked by FAB* Score

Rank Was Company FAB Score* Founded HQ Funding $M Visits
Jun ’23
Ad National Business Capital ***** 2007 New York 120,000
1 1 Capchase 488 2020 NYC 950 50,000
2 3 Clearco 314 2015 Toronto 699 57,000
3 4 BlueVine 270 2013 SF 768 810,000
4 6 OnDeck 209 2007 NYC 1200 230,000
5 5 Nav 208 2012 Utah 92 990,000
6 7 Pipe 178 2019 Miami 323 91,000
7 9 FundBox 133 2013 SF 554 100,000
8 8 Camino Financial 127 2014 LA 170 250,000
9 10 CAN Capital 127 1998 Atlanta 1002 2,500
10 13 Lendio 104 2011 Utah 109 460,000
11 11 Arc 100 2021 SF 181 19,000
12 12 Biz2Credit 81 2007 NYC 387 170,000
13 15 Nuula 66 2021 Toronto 120 0
14 16 Novel Partners 63 2018 Overland Park, KS 115 14,000
15 17 Lighter Capital 60 2010 Seattle 116 66,000
16 18 Lendistry 57 2015 Brea, CA 94.8 49,000
17 14 Fundera (NerdWallet) 47 2013 NYC 19 230,000
18 20 SmartBiz Loans 27 2009 SF 37 140,000
19 19 Fund that Flip 21 2014 NYC 33 50,000
20 21 IOU Financial 19 2011 Atlanta 132 20,000
21 22 Credibly 16 2010 Detroit 77 52,000
22 24 BizFI 13 2005 NYC 160 0
23 23 SMBX 12 2016 SF 15 23,000
24 25 HoneyComb Credit 10 2017 Pittsburgh 10.5 18,000
25 26 Float Financial 7 2021 Honolulu 1.3 0
26 30 SnapCap (LendingTree) 7 2012 Charelston, SC 0 49,000
27 27 Patch Lending 6 2013 LA 55 850
28t 29 Salaryo 4 2017 NYC 12 0
28t NEW QuickFI 4 2018
Fairport, NY
 6,500
30 31 P2Binvestor 2 2012 Denver 33 0
31 31 Channel Partners 2 2009 Minneapolis 50 3,400
32t 33 Lendr 0 2011 Chicago 25 4,300
32t 33 Lendinero 0 2014 Miami 0.03 3,300
32t 33 Rapid Finance 0 2005 Bethesda, MD 0 33,000
32t 27 Forward Line 0 2003 SF 20 4,200

Source: Compiled by FintechLabs, 19 July 2023, from Crunchbase, SimilarWeb, SEMRush data
(“Was” ranking as of 15 May 2023), funding includes debt & equity

*(As nerds do) We have developed a proprietary score measuring the adoption of private digital financial services companies that do not release traditional metrics (# customers, loans, orginations, etc). We are calling it the FAB score, standing for Fintech Attention Barometer. It’s a work in progress, so expect changes in the formula.
**A defunct Canadian bank, Bayshore Trust, launched the first online loan application in March 1996.
***Several lenders pay Fintech Labs a referral fee for funded loans. Those fees may impact placement on our website.
****Not applicable because National Funding is not venture-backed.

Top 30 Alt-Lenders (Digital) Lending to Small-to-Medium Businesses (SMB) in the United States

Rank (by FAB score)

1. Capchase

FAB Score = 488 (up 3 from May 2023)
– HQ: NYC
– Founded: 2020
– Raised: $950M (including $945M in 2021 & 2022) (Crunchbase)
– Website visits: 50,000 (SimilarWeb, June 2023)
– Employees: 147 (Pitchbook), up 4 since May 2023
– Articles: 53 (Crunchbase)
– Linkedin: 13,000 followers (151 employees, up 4 since May)
– Trustpilot: NA

2. Clearco (formerly Clearbanc; updated 16 June 2022)

FAB Score = 314 (unchanged)
– HQ: Toronto
– Founded: 2015
– Raised: $699M (including $550M in 2021 & $17M in 2022) (Crunchbase)
– Valuation: $2.0 billion (based on April 2021 round)
– Website visits: 57,000 (SimilarWeb, June 2023)
– Employees: 500 (Pitchbook), unchanged
– Articles: 109 (Crunchbase)
– Linkedin: 42,000 followers (202 employees, down 31)
– Trustpilot: 3.9 (307 reviews, unchanged)

3. Bluevine
FAB Score = 270 (up 18)
– HQ: San Francisco
– Founded: 2013
– Raised: $769M prior to 2021 (Crunchbase)
– Valuation: $1B+ (estimate)
– Website visits: 810,000 (SimilarWeb, June 2023)
– Employees: 596 (Pitchbook), up 11 since May 2023
– Articles: 117 (Crunchbase)
– Linkedin: 53,000 followers (603 employees, up 7)
– Trustpilot:  4.1 (7,260 reviews, up 60)

4. OnDeck (acquired by Enova Oct 2020)
FAB Score = 209 (up 14)
– HQ: NYC
– Founded: 2007
– Raised: $1.2B prior to 2021 (Crunchbase)
– Acquired by Enova in Oct 2020 for $120M
– Website visits: 230,000 (June 2023, SimilarWeb)
– Employees: 100 (Pitchbook), unchanged
– Citations: 586 (Crunchbase)
– Linkedin: 28,000 followers (333 employees, up 50)
– Trustpilot: 4.7 (3,890 reviews, up 90)

5. Nav
FAB Score = 208 (up 12)
– HQ: Utah
– Founded: 2012
– Raised: $92M prior to 2021 (Crunchbase)
– Website visits: 990,000 (SimilarWeb, June 2023)
– Employees: 199 (Pitchbook), unchanged
– Articles: NA (too many Net Asset Value citations mixed in)
– Linkedin: 5,000 followers (213 employees, down 1)
– Trustpilot: 4.2 (239 reviews, up 26)

6. Pipe
FAB Score = 178 (up 6)
– HQ: Miami
– Founded: 2019
– Raised: $323M (including $300M in 2021, $7M in 2022) (Crunchbase)
– Valuation: $2B (based on March 2022 round)
– Website visits: 91,000 (SimilarWeb, June 2023)
– Employees: 198 (Pitchbook), unchanged
– Articles: 88 (Crunchbase)
– Linkedin: 20,000 followers (286 employees, up 49 since May)
– Trustpilot:  NA

7. Fundbox 
FAB Score = 133 (unchanged)
– HQ: SF
– Founded: 2013
– Raised: $554M including $100M in 2021 (Crunchbase)
– Website visitors: 100,000 (June 2023, SimilarWeb)
– Employees: 275 (Pitchbook), unchanged
– Articles: 115 (Crunchbase)
– Linkedin: 18,000 followers (207 employees, down 19 since May)
– Trustpilot: 4.5 (3,670 reviews)

8. Camino Financial
FAB Score = 127 (down 14)
– HQ: LA
– Founded: 2014
– Raised: $170M including $150M in 2022 (Crunchbase)
– Website visits: 250,000 (June 2023; SimilarWeb)
– Employees: 134 (Pitchbook), unchanged
– Articles: 22 (Crunchbase)
– Linkedin: 13,100 followers (131 employees, up 2)
– Trustpilot: 3.3 (98 reviews, up 11)

9. CAN Capital
FAB Score = 127 (unchanged)
– HQ: Atlanta
– Founded: 1998
– Raised: $1.0B prior to 2021 (Crunchbase)
– Website visits: 2,500 (SEMrush, June 2023)
– Employees: 395 (Pitchbook), unchanged
– Articles: 92 (Crunchbase)
– Linkedin: 14,000 followers (249 employees, up 3)
– Trustpilot: 4.9 (1.030 reviews, up 27)

 

10. Lendio
FAB Score = 104 (up 20)
– HQ: Salt Lake City, Utah
– Founded: 2011 (originally founded in 2006 as FundingUtah).
– Raised: $109M prior to 2021 (Crunchbase)
– Website visits: 460,000 (June 2023, SimilarWeb)
– Employees: 514 (Pitchbook), down 64
– Citations: 125 (Crunchbase)
– Linkedin: 18,000 followers (514 employees, down 29)

11. Arc
Fab score = 100 (down 2)
– HQ: San Francisco
– Founded: 2021
– Raised: $181M (Crunchbase)
– Website visits: 19,000 (June 2023; SimilarWeb)
– Employees: 45 (Pitchbook), unchanged
– Articles: 2 (Crunchbase)
– Linkedin: 6,100 followers (84 employees, up 17 since May)

12. Biz2Credit 
FAB Score = 81 (down 12)
– HQ: NYC
– Founded: 2007
– Raised: $387M prior to 2021 (Crunchbase)
– Website visits: 170,000 (June 2023; SimilarWeb)
– Employees: 750 (Pitchbook), unchanged
– Citations: 152 (Crunchbase)
– Linkedin: 45,000 followers (605 employees, up 29)
– Trustpilot:  4.6 (14,800 reviews, up 100)

13. Nuula
FAB Score = 66 (unchanged)
– HQ: Toronto
– Founded: 2020
– Raised: $120M in 2021 (Crunchbase)
– Website visits: INA (June 2023; Similarweb)
– Employees: 26 (Pitchbook), unchanged
– Articles: 22 (Crunchbase)
– Linkedin: 5,100 followers (11 employees, down 1)
– Trustpilot:  NA

14. Novel Partners
FAB Score = 63 (down 1)
– Founded: 2018
– HQ: Overland Park, KS
– Raised: $115M in 2022 (Crunchbase)
– Website traffic: 14,000 (SimilarWeb, June 2023)
– Employees: 28 (Linkedin), up 1 since March
– Article citations: 11 (Crunchbase)
– Linkedin: 2,600 followers (28 employees, unchanged)

15. Lighter Capital
FAB Score = 60 (down 1)
– HQ: Seattle
– Founded: 2010
– Raised: $116M including $100M in 2021 (Crunchbase)
– Website visitors: 66,000 (June 2023; SimilarWeb)
– Employees: 46 (Pitchbook), up 4
– Articles:  113 (Crunchbase)
– Linkedin: 17,000 followers (45 employees, up 2)
– Trustpilot:  NA

16. Lendistry
FAB Score = 57 (up 1)
– HQ: Brea, CA
– Founded: 2015
– Raised: $94.8M including $90M in 2022 & $3.3M in 2023 (Crunchbase)
– Website visits: 49,000 (June 2023; SimilarWeb)
– Employees: 355 (Linkedin), up 15
– Articles: 30 (Crunchbase)
– Linkedin: 13,000 followers (355 employees, up 15)
– BBB: 4.7 (1,300 reviews)

17. Fundera (acquired by NerdWallet in Nov 2020) 
FAB Score = 47 (down 20)
– HQ: NYC
– Founded: 2013
– Raised: $18.9M prior to 2021 (Crunchbase)
– Website visitors: 230,000 (June 2023, SimilarWeb)
– Employees: 87 (Pitchbook), unchanged
– Articles: 66 (Crunchbase)
– Linkedin: 7,100 followers (52 employees, down 1)
– Trustpilot:  4.5 (905 reviews, up 10)

18. SmartBiz Loans (formerly BillFloat)
FAB Score = 27 (down 2)
– HQ: SF
– Founded: 2009 (originally as BillFloat)
– Raised: $37M prior to 2014 (Crunchbase)
– Website visits: 140,000 (June 2023; SimilarWeb)
– Employees: 226 (Pitchbook), unchanged since March
– Articles: 15 (Crunchbase)
– Linkedin: 6,700 followers (292 employees, up 40)
– Trustpilot:  4.6 (16,400 reviews, unchanged)

19. Fund that Flip
FAB Score = 21 (down 11)
– HQ: NYC
– Founded: 2014
– Raised: $53M including $20M in 2021 (Crunchbase)
– Website visits: 50,000 (June 2023; SimilarWeb)
– Employees: 206 (Pitchbook), up 6
– Articles: 14 (Crunchbase)
– Linkedin: 5,000 followers (207 employees, up 9)
– Trustpilot: NA (1 review)

20. IOU Financial
FAB Score = 19 (unchanged)
– HQ: Atlanta
– Founded: 2011
– Raised: $132M (including $200k in 2021) (Crunchbase)
– Public: TSXV:IOU
– Market cap: $22M (19 July 2023), up $9M since 16 May 2023
– Website visits: 20,000 (June 2023; SimilarWeb)
– Employees: 85 (Pitchbook), up 4
– Articles: 15 (Crunchbase)
– Linkedin: 3,300 followers (103 employees, up 5)
– Trustpilot: 4.8 (726 reviews, up 14)

21. Credibly
FAB Score = 16 (down 1)
– HQ: Detroit
– Founded: 2010
– Raised: $77M prior to 2020 (Crunchbase)
– Website visits: 52,000 (June 2023; SimilarWeb)
– Employees: 163 (Pitchbook), unchanged
– Articles: 4 (Crunchbase)
– Linkedin: 9,900 followers (164 employees, up 1)
– Trustpilot: 4.8 (1,450 reviews, up 70)

 

22. BizFI (acquired by World Business Lenders 2017)
FAB Score = 13 (unchanged)
– HQ: NYC
– Founded: 2005
– Raised: $160M prior to 2017 (Crunchbase)
– Website visits: INA (June 2023; SEMRush)
– Employees: 30 (Linkedin), up 2
– Citations:  206 (Crunchbase)
– Linkedin: 1,200 followers (30 employees, up 2)
– Trustpilot: 4.6 (440 reviews, unchanged)

23. SMBX
FAB Score = 12 (down 2)
– HQ: SF
– Founded: 2016
– Raised: $15.2M including $11.5M in 2021 (Crunchbase)
– Website visitors: 23,000 (June 2023; SimilarWeb)
– Employees: 32 (Linkedin)
– Articles: 13 (Crunchbase)
– Linkedin: 3,100 followers (31 employees, down 1)
– Trustpilot: NA

24. Honeycomb Credit
FAB Score = 10 (down 1)
– HQ: Pittsburgh
– Founded: 2017
– Raised: $10.5M including $1.9M in 2021 & $7.3M in 2022 (Crunchbase)
– Website visitors: 18,000 (June 2023; SimilarWeb)
– Employees: 34 (Pitchbook), down 2
– Articles: 25 (Crunchbase)
– Linkedin: 2,700 followers (34 employees, down 3)
– Trustpilot: 4.5 (72 reviews, up 18)

26. SnapCap (division of LendingTree)
FAB Score = 4 (up 1)
– HQ: Charleston, SC
– Founded: 2012
– Raised: INA (Crunchbase)
– Website visits: 49,000 (June 2023; SimilarWeb)
– Employees: 26 (Pitchbook), unchanged since March
– Articles: 2 (Crunchbase)
– Linkedin: 2,900 followers (23 employees, unchanged)
– Trustpilot: 4.9 (689 reviews, up 15)

27. Patch Lending (formerly Patch of Land; acquired by Cloverhill July 2021)
FAB Score = 6 (unchanged)
– HQ: LA
– Founded: 2013
– Raised: $54.9M prior to 2018 (Crunchbase)
– Website visits: 850 (June 2023; SEMRush)
– Employees: 46 (Pitchbook), unchanged
– Articles: 36 (Crunchbase)
– Linkedin: 4,200 followers (25 employees, up 1)
– Trustpilot: 4.1 (29 reviews, unchanged)

28. Salaryo (acquired by Meitav Investment House in 2022)
FAB Score = 4 (unchanged)
– HQ: NYC
– Founded: 2017
– Raised: $12.1M prior to 2021 (Crunchbase)
– Website visits: INA (June 2023; SEMRush)
– Employees: 11 (Pitchbook), unchanged
– Articles: 20 (Crunchbase)
– Linkedin: 1,400 followers (10 employees, down 1)
– Trustpilot: NA

28(t). P2Binvestor (acquired by Aion)
FAB Score = 2 (unchanged)
– HQ: Denver
– Founded: 2012
– Raised: $33.3M prior to 2019 (Crunchbase)
– Website visits: INA (June 2023; SEMRush)
– Employees: 11 (Pitchbook), unchanged
– Articles: 25 (Crunchbase)
– Linkedin: 910 followers (2 employees, unchanged)
– Trustpilot: NA

33(t). ForwardLine
FAB Score = 0 (down 6) 
– HQ: LA
– Founded: 2003
– Raised: $20M prior to 2020 (Crunchbase)
– Website visits: 1,100 (June 2023; SimilarWeb)
– Employees: 67 (Pitchbook), up 4
– Articles: 2 (Crunchbase)
– Linkedin: 3,300 followers (65 employees, down 2)
– Trustpilot: 4.2 (261 reviews, up 22)

Defunct

Kabbage (acquired by American Express)
No longer operated as a separate brand (June 2023)
– HQ: Atlanta
– Founded: 2008
– Raised: $2.5B (Crunchbase)
– Website visits: 3,000 (SimilarWeb, May 2023)
– Employees: 255 (Pitchbook), unchanged
– Articles: 614 (Crunchbase)
– Linkedin: 41,000 followers (172 employees, down 4 since May)
– Trustpilot: 2.8 (6,780 reviews through Jan 2023, new info no longer available)

Lendvo (taken off list Feb 2023)
FAB Score = 0 (down 1)
– HQ: Washington DC
– Founded: 2015
– Raised: $1.3M prior to 2016 (Crunchbase)
– Website visitors: INA (Dec 2022; SEMRush)
– Employees: 2 (Pitchbook)
– Articles: 0 (Crunchbase)
– Linkedin: 59 followers (no employees linked)
– Trustpilot: NA