Nav Names New CEO To Match SMBs With Credit

Nav, a platform for small businesses to compare financing and credit options, has announced a new CEO. A press release issued on Tuesday (Jan. 14) said that Nav has named Greg Ott as CEO, with former CEO Levi King stepping down. King will join Nav’s board of directors as its executive chairman.

In a statement, King said he is “confident in Greg’s proven ability and expertise to take the reins at Nav.”

Nav noted that Ott, who has been with the company since 2015, supported its $90 million equity capital funding, its integrated partnership with Clover and the development of Nav’s tri-bureau business credit solution.

“I am honored to be entrusted with the responsibility of this caliber,” Ott said in a statement. “Nav’s founders created a company that is truly unique in its ability to revolutionize how small business owners navigate and access capital to grow their business. I look forward to building upon Nav’s successes, and furthering the company’s vision of aligning financing qualifications, predicting needs and facilitating transactions between data providers, lenders, partners and small businesses.”

Last year, Nav announced a $44 million funding round led by Goldman Sachs, with Point72 Ventures, Experian Ventures, CreditEase FinTech Investment Fund and Aries also participating. At the time, Nav said it would deploy the investment toward marketing and further technological development.

That same month, former CEO Levi King spoke with Karen Webster about the challenge of providing clarity and understanding on the complexities of the small business financing market, and educating small business owners about the importance of their own personal credit in enabling their businesses to obtain financing.

“The difficulties for small businesses in understanding credit, and how that applies to getting financing, that drove me nuts when I was in business, and this is what led to this company,” he said. “I want to solve that problem through technology.”