American Express agrees deal to acquire online small business lender Kabbage

American Express followed up its recent partnership with Open Banking pioneer, Yapily by announcing the acquisition of online small business lender, Kabbage.

Whilst the purchase includes the Kabbage business, products and related IP in its entirety, but not included in the deal is the pre-existing loan portfolio.

Kabbage was valued at more than $1 billion in 2017 after a $250 million investment from SoftBank. However, like many firms it hasn’t been immune to the Covid-19 pandemic with redundancies announced during the global fight against the virus.

Kabbage boasts product lines such as lines of credit, online bill payment, cash flow visualisation tools and e-gift certificates.

Anna Marrs, President, Global Commercial Services, American Express said:“This acquisition accelerates our plans to offer US small businesses an easy and efficient way to manage their payments and cash flow digitally in one place, which is more critical than ever in today’s environment.

“By bringing together Kabbage’s innovative technology and talented team with our broad distribution capabilities and over 60 years of experience backing small businesses, we can better help our customers successfully emerge from this challenging period and beyond.”