Kabbage

Founder/s: Rob Frohwein, Marc Gorlin, Kathryn Petralia
Key people: Scott Askins (Head of Legal & Compliance), Troy Deus (Head of Creative), Rob Frohwein (Co-Founder & CEO), Jeff Hodges (CFO), Jon Hoffmann (EVP – Credit Operations) and Ratnakar Pandey (India Head Analytics and Data Science)

Kabbage, Inc. is a financial technology and data company that pioneered a new, automated way to lend money to small businesses and consumers. The company simplified the manual application process to one that is 100% online and automated. Businesses and consumers can use their own data to submit an application online and receive an immediate decision and access to funds on the spot.

Kabbage leverages data generated such as revenue, accounting data, business transactions, shipping data, social media and other sources to understand a business’s overall health and calculate credit lines throughout the customer lifecycle.

The company end making its first loan to online merchants in 2011 and extended its lending to all small businesses – online and brick-and mortar – in February 2014.

In November 2013, Kabafter expanded its business to mobile with an iOS and Android app that enables users to apply or access their funds from their smartphones.

Kabbage’s first expansion of its technology and data platform was to launch Karrot personal loans in 2014. Karrot is the only fully automated personal loan product that can verify 100% of a person’s income. Karrot also provides an immediate answer and access to funds as soon as the next day.

Kabbage expanded the application of its platform in March 2015 by licensing the data and technology platform to power lending for other organizations. The company was named one of Forbes magazine’s Most Promising Companies list for the second year in a row. Kabbage further extended its lending reach in May 2015 with the announcement of the new Kabbage Card, which gives businesses the ability to pay for items at the point of sale with a purchasing card tied to their Kabbage account. Kabbage also collaborated with MasterCard in May 2015 to make Kabbage’s data and technology platform available through MasterCard’s network of acquirers.

In August 2015, Kabbage was named the 36th fastest-growing private company in America on the Inc. 500 list. In October 2015, Kabbage completed a Series E funding round of $135 million led by Reverence Capital Partners. Holland’s ING, Spain’s Santander (via InnoVentures, Santander’s venture capital arm); and Canada’s Scotiabank also participated in the round. Kabbage also announced a strategic partnership with ING to deliver instant capital to small businesses throughout Spain.

In June 2016, Kabbage was named to CNBC’s annual Disruptor 50 list of the most forward-thinking and ambitious companies that are revolutionizing industries and markets worldwide. Two months later, Kabbage was named to the Inc. 500 list of the country’s fastest-growing private companies for the second year in a row

In August 2016, Kroll Bond Rating Agency (KBRA) upgraded and affirmed ratings on Class A2-2 Certificates issued by Kabbage Funding 2014-1 Resecurization Trust. The certificates were upgraded from BBB + (sf) to A- (sf) based on structural improvements To the transaction’s concentration requirements and the existence of more historical data relating to Kabbage’s collateral. KBRA also affirmed the ratings on the Class B2A Certificates of BB- (sf), Class B2B Certificates of BB- (sf) and Class B2C Certificates of B + S f), which were prepared rated in November 2015.