CHICAGO, Original Release July 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ – LQD Business Finance – a Chicago-based, technology-enabled business lender - announced that it has completed a Series A round of financing with Atlanta-based investment firm, Fintech Ventures Fund. The new round of financing will help LQD accelerate growth and continue its national expansion.
"We are pleased to be partnering with the team at Fintech Ventures Fund. We feel that Fintech Ventures' focus on technology-enabled lending gives the Fund a unique insight into the space and makes them a valuable addition," says LQD C.E.O. George Souri.
"We have seen almost every business lending company out there, and believe strongly that LQD - because of the larger loan market it's targeting and the strength of its underwriting and risk management - is uniquely positioned to win in its targeted market. LQD is not just another marketplace or short-term lender, but a real paradigm shifting model in terms of business lending. We believe in LQD's experienced and talented management team, and we are happy to partner with them to grow LQD into a national leader," says Serguei Kouzmine, General Partner of Fintech Ventures Fund.
The Series A Round continues LQD's run of milestone achievements, including the closing of a $30 million facility with Route 66 Ventures in November of 2015. "We spent a lot of time building a solid foundation so that we could grow effectively. Our partnership with Fintech Ventures is another step towards our goal of fundamentally transforming business lending," says Souri.
LQD Business Finance uses its proprietary underwriting and risk management platform, LQD Matrix, to offer structured loans to small and medium sized businesses nationally. Unlike most existing fintech lenders that focus on loans of less than $100 thousand, LQD targets larger near-prime and mid-prime loans of up to $2 million.
According to Souri, "There exists billions of dollars in under-served, near-prime borrowing demand for loans of between $250 thousand and $2 million. These larger loans require a more rigorous underwriting process than the processes currently being utilized by existing fintech lenders. This is why existing lenders have been limited to focusing on loans of less than $100 thousand in most cases. In contrast, LQD can access a much larger market because we started by solving the underwriting and risk question and built the Company on that foundation. As a result, we believe that we have a winning, foundationally-transformative, and defensible model."
About Fintech Ventures
Fund Fintech Ventures Fund is an Atlanta-based $100 million venture capital fund that provides equity to emerging potential leaders and quality niche players that serve underbanked or unbanked customers in the non-banking lending and payment spaces. The Fund's primary mission is to build strategic partnerships with entrepreneurs and provide them with the resources and support to successfully build best-in-class companies with sustainable competitive advantages.
Contact: Alexandra Moritz
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