It’s only September, so the majority of people and businesses aren’t thinking too much about taxes. However, we're nearing the end of Q3 and the new year and tax reporting is just around the corner. With this in mind, marketplace lending firm, Funding Circle, is preparing for the surge in tax related activity next year as they have announced a partnership with H&R Block.
Funding Circle's partnership with this accounting firm, that specializes in personal and SME tax returns, is similar to others we’ve seen between marketplace lenders and SME service providers. Similar deals include Kabbage’s partnership with Sage Payment Solutions in Australia. For marketplace lenders, working together and offering referral revenues to firms that support SMEs provides them with access to an existing group of business customers as potential Leads for their lending platform.
In the current deal, Funding Circle will provide business loans of up to $500,000 to firms who already use H&R Block's accounting services, such as bookkeeping, payroll, and taxes. For Funding Circle, the deal adds H&R Block to a growing list of partners that service the SME market, including Intuit, Tri-Net, LendingTree, Credit Karma and Creditera. According to Funding Circle, growth in their strategic partners business has led to monthly originations from the unit increasing 313% since January 2015.
Commenting on the partnership, Jeremy Smith, Director of Block Small Business, stated: “The mission of our two organizations are very similar. We both provide services to small businesses that enable successful, sustainable growth. Given that we do the accounting for service businesses with less than $20MM in revenue, our clients have found it difficult to get loans from traditional banks. Well, Funding Circle specializes in lending to these types of businesses; so now our clients have a go-to source for capital to grow their businesses."
