https://www.wired.co.uk/event/wired-money-2016
Kathryn Petralia thinks simplicity is the way forward for online lending; the more simple a product, the more elegant it is and the more efficient it is for consumers.
Petralia is head of operations at lending business Kabbage. Kabbage gives loans to small businesses by using what Petralia describes as an "efficient, automated platform".
The company offers up to $100,000 (£70,000) in credit to small businesses, with an average loan of $25,000 (£17,000) typically paid back over six months. The average customer journey from application to receiving a loan takes seven minutes.
Data is gathered from a number of services – accounting services, social data, shipping data and more – via third party access granted by customers.
"When we started Kabbage, we wanted to keep the process clean and provide a product the customer wanted and needed to use," Petralia said at WIRED Money at the British Museum.
Because Petralia and her co-founders had no background in small business lending, she says they lacked the "baggage" of people who had worked in the industry for years.
"I'm an English major," she said. "I think product development should be just as concise as language. And so our product was simple."
In 2016, Kabbage's product is similar to its first iteration in 2011. Customers still complete their applications within seven minutes – the only thing that's changed, Petralia says, is that Kabbage has partnered with global banks including Santander and ING.
Petralia says the automated service helps make customers more satisfied – they value speed and efficiency, she says.
“90 per cent of customers have a fully automated experience, without speaking to a single person,” she said. “They can get the product on their terms.”
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
