Fintech partners: Nav and Marcus to offer ‘smarter’ lines of credit to small businesses

In its mission “to reduce the death rate of small businesses,” fintech services provider Nav Technologies is partnering with Marcus by Goldman Sachs to provide small business owners “financially smart” lines of credit with fixed rates, no origination or maintenance fees, and a wholly digital experience.

Through this launch, Nav, which incorporates an AI and machine learning platform to present small business owners with curated financing options, said it’s “expanding its commitment to providing the tools that will make financing simple for entrepreneurs and business owners,” according to the company’s announcement.

Small businesses throughout the US continue to experience unrelenting adversity as continuous supply chain backlogs, rising interest and double-digit-flirting inflation rates are forcing many small business owners to decide — on a day-by-day basis — if they will continue to stay in business. Access to funding — not merely a fixed amount of cash, but the right financing to meet specific business needs — isn’t an option for countless many small businesses. But Nav and Marcus intend to reverse this trend by offering small business owners more transparency in their financing options. Nav’s says that its ability to connect real business data to lender criteria will allow small business owners to make more informed and confident decisions.

Greg Ott, CEO of Nav, said that working with Marcus will help better leverage its ability to use advanced AI and machine learning to provide the best available lending options specific to the needs of a small business. “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,” Ott said in the company’s press release.

Through its various business partnerships, Goldman Sachs’s digital banking platform Marcus offers financing products to help its tens of millions of members better manage their spending, borrowing, savings and investing goals. The Nav/Marcus alliance aims to make business financing personalised and straightforward, whereby Nav makes it easy for small business owners to use their own data to compare options across loans, credit cards, checking accounts and other business services to find the right solution specific to their needs, the company said.

Details of how Nav’s tools will be leveraged to simplify financing for entrepreneurs and business owners weren’t immediately available. Currently, Marcus offers an online savings account annual percentage yield of 0.70%.