SunTrust Commits $50M in Debt Financing to Online Lender Credibly

SunTrust Banks in Atlanta has committed $50 million to a credit facility for the online small-business lender Credibly.

Credibly, based in New York, announced a total of $70 million in debt financing Tuesday, with the remaining $20 million coming from AloStar Bank of Commerce, a $919 million-asset specialty lender in Birmingham, Ala.

Under the terms of the deal, the credit facility may be increased to $100 million, according to a press release. Credibly said that the funding will accelerate its ability to provide affordable capital to more small businesses.

Credibly was founded in 2010 as RetailCapital. The company later hired Glenn Goldman, a former chief executive officer at the merchant cash advance firm CAN Capital, as its new CEO, and rebranded itself as Credibly.

Credibly offers both small-business loans and merchant cash advances, ranging from $5,000 to $250,000, according to its website. A merchant cash advance is a form of financing, often quite expensive, in which the small-business receives a lump-sum payment up front in exchange for a percentage of its future daily sales.

For SunTrust, the financing of Credibly represents the latest of several forays into the thriving online lending sphere.

SunTrust operates an online consumer loan platform called LightStream. The $187 billion-asset bank is an investor in Prosper, a marketplace lender in San Francisco. SunTrust also has a $50 million credit facility with OnDeck Capital, another online small-business lender.

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