MYOB, Valiant Partner On SMB Loan Financing

MYOB, the accounting software firm, is working with Valiant Finance on a new deal to offer “predictive financing,” letting companies know their options via Valiant if they need a loan or another kind of financing, a report from WAtoday said Monday (June 21).

Valiant will help it link smaller businesses with lenders.

According to the report, the impetus for the new tech was the fact that many smaller companies were feeling a crunch from the limitations of traditional lending.

“The banks are not fast enough and good enough at effectively handling that mid-market to the small market,” MYOB CEO Greg Ellis said, per the report. “We think there’s a tremendous demand, but it’s still a relatively intensive process so our objective is to smoothen that process in terms of admin, in terms of efficiency.”

In addition, the new partnership offers a contrast with the methods used by rival company Xero. The report noted that while both MYOB and Xero rolled out invoice financing offerings in the past year, the MYOB-Valiant partnership is distinct because it goes more into the small to medium-sized business (SMB) lending space. According to Ellis, the new platform creates one stop for users and contains different solutions that can help cut down on customers’ system integration cost and the running cost.

FinTechs are working on unlocking new features in banking by using data from third parties, PYMNTS wrote, including the well of opportunities in small business lending.

ForwardAI CEO and Co-Founder Nick Chandi and Chief Information Officer and Co-Founder Jag Barpagga, speaking with PYMNTS, said it would be crucial for banks to work with SMB back-office functions in order to boost financing. Data transparency is also needed to boost and secure financing efforts.

As programs like the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) showed, it’s important for smaller companies to have access to capital.