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Lendio

Lender or loan platform

PPP
Type
Company or group
Role
Lender or loan platform
Programs
PPP
Updated
  • Type: Small-business loan marketplace / facilitator — not a lender of record.
  • Legal entities: Lendio, Inc.
  • Founded: 2011, Lehi, Utah, by Brock Blake and Trent Miskin. Blake's own account traces the company to a Brigham Young University entrepreneurship class and its $50,000 prize, then Funding Utah and Funding Universe, before Lendio was created in 2011 (Utah Business, Aug. 17, 2023).
  • HQ: 4100 Chapel Ridge Road, Suite 500, Lehi, UT 84043 (the address on the FTC/SBA warning letter); current investor pages list South Jordan, Utah (Pivot Investment Partners).
  • CEO: Brock Blake (continuous since founding).
  • Role: Routes a single online application to a network of small-business lenders (banks, non-banks, fintechs) and earns referral fees. Its April 2020 PPP page said Lendio "can connect you to Paycheck Protection Program loans offered through the SBA".

Pandemic-role map

  • Reader shorthand: small-business loan marketplace / referral agent, not a lender of record.
  • What Lendio did for borrowers: helped applicants submit one PPP inquiry and get matched to lenders in its network.
  • What Lendio sold to other companies: supplied borrower acquisition, intake, packaging, and lender-routing capacity to banks and non-bank lenders that wanted PPP flow.
  • Where responsibility sat: the partner lender approved, funded, and held the SBA loan; Lendio's role was upstream matching and facilitation, with compensation through referral/marketplace economics rather than borrower-side PPP fees.

Before the pandemic (2011–early 2020)

Before the pandemic Lendio described itself as a free online marketplace that had, since 2011, originated just over $2 billion in loans to 110,000 small businesses (Lendio Report Shows How its Diverse Network of Lenders Converged to Secure $8 Billion in PPP Loan Approvals); its PPP page advertised the application as free.

Investors. Pivot Investment Partners' portfolio page lists Blumberg Capital, Comcast Ventures and Napier Park among co-investors; Mercato Partners lists Lendio in its Traverse Fund III portfolio.

On February 27, 2020 Lendio said it had secured $55 million, "including $31 million in equity led by Mercato Partners' Traverse Fund and a $24 million debt facility from Signature Bank" (Lendio Closes $55M Series E Funding Round Led by Mercato Partners). Hercules Capital's schedule of investments for December 31, 2019 lists a $5.0 million senior secured loan to Lendio at prime plus 4.45%, maturing April 2023, and a warrant for 127,032 Lendio Series D preferred shares (Hercules Capital, Inc. Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019). Its schedule for March 31, 2020 lists only the warrant (Hercules Capital, Inc. Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended March 31, 2020). Hercules put the warrant's fair value at $14,000 at the end of 2019, $7,000 at March 31, 2020, $92,000 at September 30, 2021 and $19,000 at December 31, 2022 (Hercules Capital, Inc. Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended September 30, 2021; Hercules Capital, Inc. Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022).

Brock Blake and Trent Miskin were named EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2020 (Utah Region) in October 2020.

During the pandemic (March 2020 – mid 2021)

By its own count, Lendio had facilitated "more than 213,000 PPP loan approvals totaling $9.8 billion" by April 22, 2021 (Lendio Surpasses 213,000 PPP Loans Totaling Nearly $10 Billion). Before PPP, it said, it had "originated just over $2 billion" since 2011 (Lendio Report Shows How its Diverse Network of Lenders Converged to Secure $8 Billion in PPP Loan Approvals). The PPP approvals alone come to nearly five times that.

The March 24, 2020 coalition letter

Blake signed the fintech coalition letter, published under OnDeck's banner and on Womply's own press page, to congressional leadership on March 24, 2020, asking Treasury to route "upwards of $500 billion" to small businesses through non-bank lenders and stating, "We seek no gain from this crisis." Lendio's signature is on the document as "Founder & CEO" (archived letter text).

PPP1

Lendio's PPP landing page, as archived on April 7, 2020, positioned the company as a connector: "Lendio can connect you to Paycheck Protection Program loans offered through the SBA." Terms advertised: up to $10M, 1% APR, six-month deferral, 2-year term, possible 100% forgiveness, free to apply, no credit impact. That page named no originating partner banks.

Company-reported PPP1 scale, drawn from Lendio's own August 2020 report and a contemporaneous deBanked write-up by Kevin Travers:

  • ~$8 billion of PPP loans approved through the platform.
  • More than 300 lenders participating, including 100 added during the program.
  • More than 100,000 small-business owners applied through the platform, supporting an estimated 1.1 million jobs.
  • Traditional banks approved the most dollars, $3.3B, and 44% of the loans; non-bank lenders had the most approvals (50,264 transactions); fintech lenders = ~6% of dollar volume.

Blake told deBanked: "It was more demand in one weekend than the SBA had seen in the last 14 years combined." Several fintechs that sat out PPP, including BFS Capital, said publicly they referred their own customers to "the Lendios of the world" (Banking Dive, May 26, 2020).

How the matching worked

Borrowers applied through Lendio and, its April 3, 2020 launch release said, were "connected with one of the approved capital providers in Lendio's extensive network of banks, credit unions and fintech lenders." The same release said Lendio "is not a direct lender" and that its matching service "is free to business owners" (Lendio Launches Paycheck Protection Program Loan Application for Small Businesses). Two weeks later Lendio said it "facilitates PPP loans as an agent" (Lendio Facilitates $5.7 Billion in Relief Funds for More Than 70,000 Small Businesses Through the Paycheck Protection Program). We found no Lendio press release from 2020 to 2023 that says what lenders paid it.

Lendio also supplied the plumbing. The April 3 release said it was "powering the online PPP loan application process for hundreds of financial institutions." On April 23 it said that in less than a week it and Jack Henry had helped "more than 250 banks and credit unions launch a digital PPP loan application," using Lendio's "white-labeled loan application and document gathering infrastructure." By then the joint product had "supported the completion of over 38,000 PPP applications totaling approximately $4.2 billion in loan requests" (Lendio and Jack Henry & Associates Streamline the PPP Loan Application Process for Financial Institutions). Lendio said it would be "the exclusive PPP partner for Mindbody's U.S.-based customers" (Lendio Partners With Mindbody to Expedite Relief Funds for Its Small Business Customers). In June it offered financial institutions forgiveness processing, including "dedicated loan forgiveness agents" (Lendio to Power PPP Loan Forgiveness Applications for Financial Institutions).

Approved, then received

On April 17, 2020 Lendio said PPP applications approved through its marketplace and bank partnerships "total $5.7 billion," for more than 70,000 small businesses (Lendio Facilitates $5.7 Billion in Relief Funds for More Than 70,000 Small Businesses Through the Paycheck Protection Program). Eight days later it said borrowers "have received over $2.5 billion," while some applications were "still in the process of closing with lenders" (Update on Paycheck Protection Program Loans for Round 1 and Round 2 of CARES Act Funding). The same update said there was "a backlog with some lenders" and that Ready Capital, which had "stepped up to fund the highest volume of Lendio-led applications," was taking the longest to close. Its list of key facts about the SBA's 10-day disbursement rule said borrowers "will not be penalized if the window passes" and that "any ramifications that persist will be the responsibility of the lenders."

The shrinking average

Lendio said its applicants were "the smallest of the small businesses." The average loan it quoted kept falling: "just over $110,000" against a national average of "just under $240,000" on April 17, 2020; $65,000 against "around $114,000" on June 22, 2020; and $34,000 against "just over $50,000" in the 2021 round (Lendio Facilitates $5.7 Billion in Relief Funds for More Than 70,000 Small Businesses Through the Paycheck Protection Program; Lendio to Distribute $200,000 in Grants to Underserved Small Business Owners; Lendio Surpasses 213,000 PPP Loans Totaling Nearly $10 Billion). Its July 2020 release said "98% of PPP applicants through the Lendio platform are first-time Lendio customers" (Lendio Facilitates $8 Billion in PPP Loans to 100,000 Small Businesses). The April 2021 release listed "increased fraud" among the program's hurdles.

Staffing

On March 31, 2020 Lendio announced plans to hire "up to 200 full-time small business loan agents" for jobs it described as "temporary to hire opportunities, contingent upon performance and company growth" (Lendio to Hire 200 Agents to Match Small Businesses With CARES Act Loans). On December 30 it announced plans to hire 500 employees by the end of January 2021 and said it would hire "190 full-time temporary-to-hire employees by January 7, 2021," in positions "expected to last into the spring of 2021" (Lendio to Hire 500 Employees to Continue Its Mission of Saving Small Businesses). In August 2020 Blake told deBanked that Lendio "took on 250 new hires" (Banks, Non-Banks, Fintech and More Came Through for Lendio on PPP, But it Wasn't Easy).

Grants for customers

On June 22, 2020 Lendio announced a $200,000 grant program for its small-business customers, with grants "ranging from $5,000 to $50,000" (Lendio to Distribute $200,000 in Grants to Underserved Small Business Owners). It received "nearly 400 grant applications." On July 10 it named 23 winners: one at $50,000, two at $25,000, five at $10,000 and ten at $5,000, which comes to $200,000, plus five listed under "$1,000 or Sunrise Bookkeeping Subscription" (Lendio Announces Winners of $200,000 in Small Business Grants). In February 2021 Lendio and Heartland Payment Systems named two restaurants as winners of the Lendio Fresh Start Grant: Wolffy's of Airway Heights, Washington ($20,000) and BAPS! of Escondido, California ($10,000) (Lendio and Heartland Announce Winners of the Lendio Fresh Start Small Business Grant).

The May 14, 2020 FTC/SBA warning letter

On May 14, 2020 the Federal Trade Commission and the Small Business Administration sent a joint warning letter addressed to Brock Blake and General Counsel Ethan Hanson at Lendio's Lehi office. The letter said FTC staff had reviewed marketing "by, or on behalf of, Lendio," including:

  • IT Media Solutions, LLC and the website sba.com, which used the headline "Your Paycheck Protection Program Loan starts here" and described itself as connecting users to a "large nationwide network/marketplace of approved PPP lenders."
  • Merchants Advance Network, Inc. and manfunding.com, which represented itself as "an authorized SBA loan packager" charging a $495 fee per business.

The agencies cited the SBA rule that PPP agents, including lead generators and application-assistance providers, were prohibited from charging applicants directly or out of loan proceeds. The letter demanded a written response within 48 hours describing claims-substantiation and corrective action.

  1. The letter was a warning letter, not a complaint, settlement, judgment, or admission.
  2. Lendio did not operate sba.com. The FTC's accompanying May 18, 2020 press release identifies IT Media Solutions as the operator and Lendio as a warned company whose lead generators included IT Media and Merchants Advance Network.
  3. No follow-on FTC, SBA, or CFPB action against Lendio has been located in subsequent enforcement records.

PPP2 (2021)

Lendio's PPP page, as archived on July 28, 2021, — co-branded with Bench Accounting — shows the company taking first-draw and second-draw PPP applications under the Economic Aid Act expansion: 5-year term, first-draw 500-employee cap, second-draw 300-employee cap with 25% revenue-reduction test, NAICS 72 (restaurants, hotels, live venues) 3.5x payroll multiplier, expanded permitted uses (software/cloud, supplier costs, property damage, worker-protection expenditures, EIDL refinancing), $100,000 annualized per-employee payroll cap, documentation checklist.

Blake's 2023 account puts Lendio's cumulative PPP facilitation at more than $9.8 billion, within more than $12 billion of total funding (Utah Business, Aug. 17, 2023).

Channel evidence in lender-facing materials

A Benworth Capital PPP servicing page, as archived on May 7, 2021, instructed borrowers to identify whether they had applied through Womply or Lendio before contacting the lender.

Lendio in DOJ borrower-fraud cases

  • September 8, 2023: U.S. Attorney's Office, W.D.N.Y.: two brothers pleaded guilty in a PPP fraud scheme involving three applications to Evolve Bank & Trust and five applications to Lendio, described as a Utah-based fintech (DOJ release).
  • October 18, 2024: same office, sentencing of Larry Jordan to 18 months, repeating the five-applications-to-Lendio fact pattern (DOJ release).

Lendio is named as the channel through which applications were submitted, not as a defendant.

After the pandemic (mid 2021 – present)

Employee Retention Credit

By October 2023 Lendio was taking Employee Retention Credit applications, working with what it called "Lendio's tax partners." Its October 26, 2023 release said "5,000 small businesses have received over $300 million from the ERC with Lendio." It noted that the IRS had "announced a moratorium last month on processing new claims until at least January 2024" and said "eligible SMBs can still submit their ERC application now, to be reviewed when the IRS re-commences them" (Lendio Pledges Continued Support for Small Businesses with Employee Retention Tax Credit Applications).

Headcount

PPP closed to applicants on May 31, 2021. Utah's WARN notice list, as archived on October 3, 2024, runs from 2020 through 2023 and has no Lendio notice (WARN Notices, Utah Department of Workforce Services).

Billy acquisition

Lendio acquired the cloud-accounting startup Billy and launched cloud accounting software (Finovate).

2024 survey

Lendio's 2024 State of SMB Lending survey of over 1,000 small-business owners reported 68% citing access to financing as the most important factor for growth (Banking Dive, July 25, 2024).

Where Lendio doesn't appear

  • House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, December 1, 2022 fintech-PPP report ("We Are Not the Fraud Police"): the word "Lendio" does not appear. The report's case studies are Blueacorn, Womply, Kabbage, Bluevine, Cross River, and Customers Bank.
  • SBA suspensions (December 2022): SBA's statement suspended Blueacorn and Womply; it does not name Lendio.
  • FTC enforcement actions: no follow-on action against Lendio after the May 14, 2020 warning letter has been located.
  • False Claims Act settlements: none located.
  • SBA PPP loan-level data (September 30, 2024 release): no loan to a borrower named Lendio.
  • Bankruptcy proceedings: none. Lendio remains operating and privately held.
  • DOJ criminal charges against Lendio or its officers: none located.

Current posture (as of mid-2026)

Lendio is described by its investors' portfolio pages as a small-business lending marketplace with a network of over 75 lenders and over 100,000 loans funded (Mercato Partners), headquartered in South Jordan, Utah, with Brock Blake as CEO (Pivot Investment Partners). The company remains privately held.

Sources

Primary documents in this archive

External references

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