We’ve been looking at the Kabbage website and noticed that Kabbage are running a closed beta, offering finance to UK merchants.
Kabbage currently operate in the US, offering short term loans to online sellers and have built up a sterling reputation over the last two years. In September they announced landing $30 million in Series C financing and with their rapid growth in the US estimate that they support some $800 million in annual sales for their small business customers. They also recently had Scott Thompson, ex PayPal CEO join their board.
Kabbage offer a straightforward solution for obtaining working capital with a transaction fee of ranging from 2% to 7% and then a monthly interest rate of 4%. Unlike other companies currently offering three month loans in the UK, Kabbage will extend finance for up to ten months offering some additional flexibility (although you can repay as early as you like).
Unlike traditional banks where you’re a credit score, Kabbage assess your eBay business as well as taking into account your extended online profiles on Twitter and Facebook. In the US they also take into account your Amazon, Yahoo! and Shopify businesses to justify higher loan amounts, that’s likely to come to the UK too.
Currently you won’t be able to apply for a loan direct from the Kabbage home page, but Tamebay have found the sneaky back door beta application form, so if you want Kabbage finance apply here.
7 Responses
Interesting that there are now 3 players in the market. Iwoca, Ezbob and now Kabbage. It would be interesting to do a like for like comparison on the 3 to see which fares the best over varying time periods etc.
Darren,
I think that people considering taking out such finance are better placed to do that themselves, with their own personal situation and needs as a background, rather than a hypothetical judgement that declares “so and so is best.”
Whilst they offer similar services at first glance, in fact, they are each quite distinct businesses with different offerings.
What IS interesting is that three companies have joined in this sector this year. When last year there were none. That speaks volumes about the state of SME lending from the banks.
dw
Interesting finance solution, I wasn’t aware such a solution was available.
Also can I know more about this business PayPay?:
“Scott Thompson, ex PayPay CEO”
What scares the bejeebus out of me when talking about these eBay capital providers is this:
What if you take a loan, buy a load of stock, wait for it to arrive, list said stock and then bamb! eBay hit you with selling limits, or worse, stop you from selling altogether?