Clear guidelines and proprietary software cut approval time from days to minutes
Revenued is a pioneering small business financing company that so far has over 30,000 second-round Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans approved by the SBA. The firm recently conducted an informal survey to help them better understand and improve the PPP application process.
After contacting more than 200 business owners who have begun but not yet completed a full application, they discovered that:
– 40% didn’t have the required documentation or were confused as to what was needed.
– 33% applied with another lender.
– 22% didn’t think they would be eligible for PPP funding.
– 17% thought they lacked time to complete the application.
Of the fully completed second-round PPP applications submitted to the Small Business Association (SBA) through the Revenued platform, only about 10% were rejected because the SBA already received their application from another lender.
In the first round of PPP, all the funds were exhausted early in the program and multiple applications through different lenders were common. In contrast, funds for this round are less than half allocated, and multiple applications are rarer.
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According to Revenued, the data above indicates that potential borrowers are confused about eligibility and documentation.
With these findings in mind, Revenued has introduced required documentation guidelines, how-to web pages, and video tutorials to assist borrowers through the application process.
So far, these tools, along with the merchants’ ability to schedule one-on-one meetings with underwriters, have boosted application completion by over 25%.
Revenued’s proprietary underwriting software has been significantly enhanced since the first funding round and streamlines the PPP application process using automation.
“While I can’t imagine how lenders are confirming revenue drops manually, the complexity of this PPP round means that fintech is critical but not a silver bullet,” says Revenued CEO Solomon Lax.
According to Mr. Lax, the key to helping clients apply for PPP funding is fintech software working in tandem with borrower education and personalized underwriter consultations.
Revenued’s software can instantly confirm revenue drops using uploaded bank statements. It can also streamline the submission and validation of relevant tax forms.
On the other hand, standard bank PPP underwriting is largely manual. When coupled with borrower confusion, a manual process is a prescription for a painfully slow PPP deployment.
Mr. Lax says that Revenued’s automated underwriting software greenlights PPP applications within minutes and has been processing up to 5,000 a day.
“The key is having a frictionless process for a borrower that shows up with the right documentation like tax forms or bank statements,” he says. “If an applicant has the correct documents and everything is legible, it goes through from beginning to end in 10 minutes.”
Revenued is a technology platform that scores and processes small business credit. The company was beta testing a business card built for businesses with non-prime credit scores.
That’s when COVID-19 struck, and everything came to a halt.
Revenued shifted its focus to PPP when it became clear that federal funding would become the most pressing need for small businesses. They teamed up with a leading fintech bank to underwrite and process PPP loan applications.
“We came together and were able to quickly transition our system to process PPP applications during a challenging time for businesses nationwide,” Mr. Lax says. “The result has been powerful.”
With only days to implement updated PPP guidelines before the new program rolled out, Revenued re-developed its existing technology to streamline the application process.
In the initial PPP round, Revenued’s system processed more than 180,000 applications and helped fund nearly $2 billion in financing for small businesses.
The quality and speed of its approval process have propelled its fintech banking partner onto an SBA list of the top 15 PPP lenders. As of Feb. 17, 2021, Revenued has helped them process more than 52,000 loans, totaling over $2.1 billion in funding.
