Walmart and Lendistry Simplify Credit for Marketplace Sellers

Small and midsize merchants have no shortage of ambition, but they often face long odds when they try to secure the financing needed to buy new equipment, restock inventory or expand online. Lenders can be hard to reach, and the process is often confusing or time-consuming. For those selling on large platforms, the friction can mean missed opportunities.

Lendistry CEO Everett K. Sands said the new pact between the lender and Walmart aims to solve that problem by making access to capital as integrated into the retail ecosystem as the checkout button itself.

“Part of it obviously is convenience,” Sands said. “You’re already doing business with a trusted brand, and then that brand is supporting you and getting you to the right types of partners. The business has a sense of what used to be present in a community bank — you’re part of a community, there’s some rapport. It doesn’t necessarily mean you always get approved, but you’re in good hands. Whether that’s education on a path forward to success, or actual access to capital, that’s the goal.”

Meeting Businesses Where They Are

Sands said too many small businesses are left to their own devices when applying for a loan, filling out paperwork late at night when they should be resting. A typical business owner’s always on the go,  he noted. “She’s running her business nine to five, she’s running her family from five to nine, and then at 9 p.m. [and now] she’s got to get online and apply for a loan,” he said. “There’s not a lot of resources available at that hour. Her CPA’s not available, her banker’s not available.”

That disconnect leaves many applicants without guidance. The idea behind the Walmart collaboration, he said, is to bring the lender to where merchants already operate. “Responsible lenders are trying to figure out how to show up in a high-quality way,” Sands added.

No One-Size-Fits-All Lending

For Sands, every business is a living organism. “Think about it like this: A business is an organism,” he said. “You wouldn’t wear the same clothes when you’re five years old, ten years old and fifty years old. Your capital is kind of like that. So we figure out where you are in the life cycle of the business and then try to get the appropriate capital.”

That means matching the loan structure to the business stage — longer-term Small Business Administration loans for major purchases, shorter-term working capital for cyclical revenue spikes. “It teaches financial stability to match revenue with the loan cycle,” Sands said. He added that many businesses don’t realize SBA rules allow multiple smaller loans up to a $5 million total, enabling flexibility as they grow.

“It’s about having a relationship with your lender that understands your plan,” he said. “You might start on Walmart one day and then decide to expand your inventory. You should be in lockstep with your lender when you’re going through that thought process about how to capitalize yourself correctly.”

The Role of Alternative Data

Behind the partnership sits data. Lendistry uses the platform’s sales and performance metrics to understand the merchant’s cash flows and to shorten the paperwork. “When you start to connect some of that alternative data and some of that alternative information, it allows us to trim down the paperwork and really see the business in real time,” Sands said. “In lending, risk is really a math problem. Sometimes we overcomplicate it with paperwork.”

He said data insights can even help merchants recognize success. “Sometimes we tell the business, ‘Hey, did you realize your revenue went up 15% last month? What did you do?’” he said. “We’re feeding that information in a data format that helps that business to think about it and grow.”

Sands said the quality and timeliness of available data are improving. “There are lots of partners who are getting better at providing the data,” he said. “Walmart’s an example — the seller can log in and look at how and where they’re selling. The lending community has more responsibility to step up on the small business side. The consumer side’s got it right; now the business side is catching up pretty fast.”

How the Walmart Partnership Works

Through the Walmart Marketplace, sellers can now apply for Lendistry financing directly from their dashboards. Eligible sellers can secure working capital loans and lines of credit designed to fit the rhythm of their sales cycles. While Walmart does not provide the funding, its marketplace infrastructure allows qualified merchants to connect seamlessly with Lendistry’s digital underwriting process.

Sands said the collaboration represents more than a product launch — it’s about responsible scale. “The answer is trying to figure out that right balance between margin, profit, operational expenses, and the cost of product,” he said, adding that “the capital can come in as a good ‘layer’ because we know what you’re spending on product, labor, or warehousing. It makes it easier to calculate growth when it’s in a standardized format.”

Expanding Access and Trust

He noted that the scarcity of financial institutions in certain regions remains a challenge. But technology-driven partnerships like this one can bridge those gaps by meeting borrowers on familiar platforms.

Sands said Lendistry, which has deployed $10 billion in capital over its first decade, intends to more than double that total over the next 10 years.

Sands said the real goal is to rebuild community trust in lending, especially among underserved entrepreneurs. “You really want to do business with somebody you trust. It helps if you’ve done business with someone else that’s already worked with them. When you have that kind of community rapport building alongside the lending institution, it makes things a lot better,” he told PYMNTS.