Lending Express Inks $2.7M

Lending Express, the only AI-powered marketplace for business loans, today announced the securing of a $2.7 million investment round led by Entree Capital, iAngels, and existing investors. The funds will be used to build out their innovative loan-matching technology and scale up operations in the United States and Australia.

Lending Express' technology matches businesses with the most relevant lenders and provides a fast, simple funding solution at no cost. Through their proprietary AI-powered AlgoScore™ and MatchScore™ algorithms they are able to predict the likelihood of a potential business to be funded and match the most relevant SMBs with the right lender, financial solution, and terms, providing lenders with the most qualified customers and thus increasing conversion rates from application to loan. This creates a win-win for businesses and lenders. This funding round comes on the heels of an immense growth period – over the past 12 months, Lending Express has increased total number of loans matched six-fold, connected SMBs to $44.8M in funding since operations began in 2016 Q4, and expects to quadruple their amount of US funding in three quarters from $1.3M to $5.2M, demonstrating strong and consistently increasing demand.

"The online alternative finance market is expanding at an incredibly rapid rate, and yet until now, has remained shamefully archaic and rudimentary," said Eden Amirav, CEO and co-founder of Lending Express. "Charting a new path for SMBs to access loans, our proprietary technology not only matches SMBs with their ideal lenders at an unprecedented success rate, but also does so painlessly. As we expand, we look forward to supporting the ever-growing SMB sector, in the US and Australia, and beyond."

"The Lending Express team has built a fantastic product," said Eyal Lifshitz, CEO of online SMB lender Bluevine. "Their mission is perfectly aligned with our own goal of providing small businesses access to capital when they need it most – with speed, simplicity, and transparency. Lending Express helps makes our job that much easier by ensuring that we are meeting businesses we can help."

"We are proud to be leading this funding round for Lending Express, having proven their model in Australia to become the market leader within a matter of months," commented Mor Assia of iAngels. "Looking at the industry, it is clear that this innovative approach is the future. We are excited for the opportunity to play a part in bringing about the next big trend in loan lending, and have full confidence Lending Express will become a leader in the market."

About Lending Express
Lending Express is the only AI-powered marketplace for business loans in the United States and Australia. Lending Express' technology matches businesses with the most relevant lenders and provides a fast, simple funding solution at no cost. Lending Express is rapidly growing with over 55,000 loyal customers and over $40mil in SMB loans funded through its platform. The company has partnered with more than 25 leading lenders and FinTech companies. The Lending Express marketplace offers multiple business funding products such as unsecured business loans, lines of credit, merchant cash advances and invoice factoring. For more information, visit https://www.lending-express.com.

About iAngels
iAngels is a VC and angel investment platform that leverages best-in-class due diligence and analytics to enable accredited investors around the world the ability to access early stage technology deals in Israel. Its investor platform hosts a highly curated portfolio of investment opportunities across a range of high-tech verticals including; Fintech, Saas, AI, Autonomous Vehicles and Blockchain. In three years, iAngels has invested in 65 companies, produced 5 exits and built a team of financial professionals led by founders, Shelly Hod Moyal and Mor Assia. For more information, see https://www.iangels.co.

About Entree Capital
Entree Capital provides multi-stage funding to innovative start-ups all over the world. Entree Capital was founded by successful entrepreneurs with a track record of having successfully invested in and exited multiple businesses on five continents over the past two decades. Entree has offices in London, Tel Aviv and San Francisco. For more information visit http://www.entreecap.com or email info@entreecap.com.