On Wednesday, the Salt Lake City-based intelligent financing platform Nav Technologies announced a partnership with Marcus by Goldman Sachs, bringing SMB “smart lines of credit.”
The new lines come to the Marcus platform with fixed rates, no origination or maintenance fees, and a fully digital experience.
Nav leans on its Machine Learning platform to give business owners the best-curated financing options.
The company said in a release that it provides tools to make entrepreneurs’ financial lives more accessible and transparent.
Gregg Ott, CEO of Nav, said the move represents Nav’s commitment to increasing open-ended, intelligent financial options for SMBs.
“This collaboration with Marcus by Goldman Sachs highlights our ability to use advanced AI to pair business owners with some of the best available lending options,” Ott said.
“We are committed to serving the small business community by increasing their available options and improving transparency around decisions that impact their success. Adding lines of credit through Marcus to our platform allows us to better serve businesses by increasing their access to capital.”
Nav said in a release that many small businesses struggle with access to funding and face challenges finding the right financing to meet their business needs. Marcus said it is working with Nav to address a growing need to SMB owners’ need for options. The release said that because of Nav’s demonstrated ability to enable SMB owners to make more informed and confident decisions.
Challenger bank from a neobank
Marcus is Goldman Sachs’ answer to the rise of digital-first neobanks: an in-house digital banking platform that offers business financing through various partnerships. Marcus offers simple and transparent products to address the spending, borrowing, saving, and investing needs of tens of millions of customers to help customers achieve their financial goals.
The Nav launch gives SMBs the option to apply for Marcus lines of credit, offering access to flexible working capital funding at fixed and competitive rates through a completely digital experience.
Abhinav Anand, Head of Lending at Marcus by Goldman Sachs, said the launch is all about options.
“Marcus serves a large pool of small businesses through existing partnerships. Our partnership with Nav will help us continue to bring innovative products to other small businesses,” Anand said.
“We’re excited to collaborate with another like-minded brand as we continue to expand our small business lending platform and provide more access to working capital.”
Nav’s curated market for financial products
Nav said it is the largest marketplace of curated financial products for small businesses. By using actual business data and proprietary scoring, the firm said it gives small businesses more transparency in finding the right loan or credit card option.
Nav said it also offers a unique financial health dashboard showing credit and cash flow insights alongside recommended financing options. The firm has worked to open its platform to seamlessly integrate within other software and websites, making it the leading embedded finance solution for SMBs.
Related:
The news follows a Goldman Sachs “Principal Strategic Investment” in Nav’s Series C round in 2019, seeing Nav raise $44.8 million in equity capital. After a 150-year history of financial expertise, risk management, and customer service, Goldman Sachs Launched Marcus in 2016.
SMB credit options join Marcus’ digital-first offerings, like a high-yield online savings account; no-fee, fixed-rate unsecured personal loans, and unsecured financing for small businesses.
Marcus also allows users to invest in managed portfolios of ETFs and use credit cards with free financial tools and trackers. All Marcus loans and savings products are provided by Goldman Sachs Bank USA, Member FDIC.
