DUBLIN: Kabbage, a US fintech firm that recently established its European headquarters in Ireland after a key investor secured a €50 million investment from a major Government-backed fund, has raised $250 million. The Georgia-based online financial technology company provides funding to small businesses through its automated lending platform. It confirmed plans to set up in Ireland in March after one of its key backers, Revenence Capital Partners, said it intended to create a number of high-quality financial services jobs here through its portfolio of companies. The decision following a €50 million investment from the Irish Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF), a State body controlled and managed by the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA).
Reverence said at that point that in conjunction with the ISIF and IDA Ireland it would seek to advance the development of the financial services sector locally by encouraging other portfolio companies to consider establishing a presence in Ireland. Founded in 2013, the Reverence portfolio includes Kabbage, Victory Capital Management, Russell Investments and Diamond Resorts International. Kabbage said on Thursday that SoftBank had agreed to invest $250 million in the company, in a move that brings the company’s total equity raised to date to nearly $500 million.
The firm intends to use the funding to expand its lending products for small businesses and to explore the provision of offline solutions. The company will also use the funds to accelerate its SaaS platform business. Serving more than 100,000 small businesses, Kabbage has provided nearly $3.5 billion in funding to date. “Our partnership with SoftBank accelerates our goal of providing a suite of services to small businesses globally that is centered on real-time and persistent access to a wide variety of data,” said Rob Frohwein, co-founder and chief executive of Kabbage.
