Kabbage Raises $75M In Debt To Fund Online Merchants On Amazon, eBay, And Etsy

Kabbage, which provides working capital to online merchants, is announcing $75 million in debit financing led by Victory Park Capital (VPC) with existing equity investor Thomvest Ventures participating. We’re told the debt facility will go towards funding advances for the company customer base.

The Atlanta-based company enables online merchants and sellers on marketplaces like eBay, Etsy, and Amazon to get capital they otherwise wouldn’t qualify for at a bank. Many small businesses and online merchants can’t receive financing from traditional banks and don’t want to risk using personal assets like a house to qualify for business loans. Kabbage is disrupting this space by providing a painless way to help these sellers access cash quickly and easily.

Kabbage uses dozens of data sources, including sales and credit history, customer traffic and reviews, and prices and inventory compared to competitors to determine seller business performance, and it provides funding to businesses in fewer than seven minutes.

Kabbage, which faces competition from On Deck and Capital Access Network, previously raised $56 million from Thomvest, UPS Strategic Enterprise Fund, Mohr Davidow Ventures, BlueRun Ventures, SV Angel and others. The company also recently expanded its offering to the UK.

The new debt funding, explains co-founder Marc Gorlin, is due to the massive growth the company has seen over the past few months. To date, Kabbage has extended more than 60,000 advances (nearly 40,000 in 2012) and expects to provide more than 100,000 in 2013 alone. Kabbage advances by volume have grown 298 percent on a year-over-year basis, while overall loan volume to small businesses declined during the same time period.

Amazon could be entering the space in a big way soon but clearly the e-commerce giant has a major contender to battle with if it does get into the merchant lending space.