This is episode 33 of the Leaders in Payments podcast featuring my special guest Keith Smith, the Co-Founder and CEO of Payability.
Payability offers ecommerce sellers with friction-free cash flow and working capital solutions. These ecommerce sellers are typically on a large platform like Amazon, Shopify, Walmart or eBay. Payability has a unique model unlike competitors that typically rely solely on the FICO score of the business owner, Payability looks at existing business metrics to make lending decisions. Businesses can skip the traditional marketplace funding delays and often receive their capital very quickly.
Payability started 5 years ago and has 70 employees and has done a little over $3B in financing to date. Payability’s goal is to be integrated into the various ecommerce channels such as Amazon, Shopify, Walmart, etc.
Due to the global pandemic, there’s been a significant shift from brick and mortar to ecommerce. Recent statistics show a 44% increase in ecommerce or online sales for last quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago while retail sales overall shrunk over 3%. This shift in channels has driven demand for ecommerce sellers to need capital for marketing and inventory.
Payability has a maniacal focus on removing the friction for their customers to obtain financing. The tremendous amount of data that exists today (especially from the platform) has allowed Payability to create lending decision algorithms that make the process much more frictionless when compared to traditional lenders.
Keith has a passion for his kids and being a Dad first. Professionally he loves to see how Payability helps small businesses and entrepreneurs live the American dream of starting and running their own business.
