Kabbage Partners With Santander To Serve UK SMBs

Grupo Santander subsidiary Santander UK said on Monday (April 4) that it will license the Kabbage Platform in an effort to increase small to mid-sized business lending in the United Kingdom.

Santander UK, whose parent company is one of the 10 largest banks in the world, said that its linkup with Kabbage furthers a goal put forth by the two companies individually to help reduce friction between the user and the payments process. The firms said in a joint press release that Kabbage’s lending platform, which is global in scope, is the first to deliver fully automated underwriting, along with origination services and monitoring that take place across the whole customer lifecycle. The firm said its technology allows for local reach and scale.

As has been reported, the online lender has developed a technology platform through which data, including accounting, sales and shipping info, is used to calculate and grant funding based on that individual business. The company has backing from a host of investors, such as Reverence Capital Partners, SoftBank and Thomvest, among others. Loans are made by Celtic Bank, which is based in Utah.

In a statement that accompanied the release, Kathryn Petralia, cofounder and chief operating officer at Kabbage, stated: “We are thrilled to begin our collaboration with Santander UK, a preeminent global brand with a rich history, deep financial expertise, a large customer base and a shared passion for innovation. Our announcement today furthers our objective to deliver the most advanced lending infrastructure to financial institutions around the world.”

Santander has said it serves more than 14 million people in the U.K., through more than 850 branches in the country.