Small businesses demand efficient access to capital and Grasshopper Bank is meeting the needs of its small business clients through its latest digital lending solutions. 

The New York-based digital bank launched its digital Small Business Administration (SBA) loan application on April 18 to allow small business clients to start a loan application on their own time at their business, Stephanie Dunn, president of SBA lending at Grasshopper Bank, told Bank Automation News. “That’s very empowering for the small business owner.” 

Grasshopper Chief Executive Mike Butler teased this SBA loan solution in January on BAN’s “The Buzz” podcast.

Built with account origination solution provider Mantl, the digital application is available on Grasshopper’s website and helps small business owners get pre-qualified for an SBA loan in less than 10 minutes, according to a Grasshopper release. 

Over several months, the bank and Mantl teamed up to map out the client journey, decide how to accomplish know-your-customer goals and determine what to automate as part of the experience, Dunn said. For example, pulling personal credit and background checks are automated through the digital application.  

3 stages for digital lending

The launch of the digital application is just the first stage of Grasshopper’s effort to simplify access to credit for borrowers, Dunn said. 

With the digital application live, “there is a huge opportunity for us to continue to innovate stage 2, stage 3,” she said. 

The next stages for digital lending include: 

• Automating credit underwriting decisions; and 
• Overall portfolio management. 

“The evolution of our technological tools that we make available to small business owners has been natural, has been needed,” Dunn said, noting that digital lending innovation will continue.