Softbank Invested $250 Million Into This Start Up

It looks like SoftBank Group believes in a start up called Kabbage. The company just invested $250 million in venture capital into the start up that is now a key lender for small business in the U.S.

Atlanta-based Kabbage combines machine-learning algorithms, data from public profiles on the internet and other factors to rate and then loan small businesses money.

Kabbage serves over 100,000 small businesses in the U.S. and has already provided over $3.5 billion in funding to small and medium sized companies.

The company is curently in Canada, Mexico, the U.K., and Spain, but with the help of the capital plans to expand to Asia and Europe.

Started by two friends, Rob Frohwein and Kathryn Petralia, the company provides fully automated funding to small business in a matter of minutes. Seven minutes to be exact. The loans range from as low as $2,000 to as high as $150,000. The interest rates are high however, and according to Frohwein, range from 30% to 37%.

David Thevenon, SoftBank’s managing director, remarked on the investment, “We invested in Kabbage because their unique automated lending platform leverages open data networks and best positions them to empower small businesses around the world.”