OnDeck passes $9bn milestone with thanks from Down Under

In part due to Australian fintech’s rapid rate of adoption, the firm has seen strong year-on-year growth, its Australia chief says.

The US-based online lending platform OnDeck has announced that it has lent more than $9bn around the world to more than 80,000 small business customers in just over ten years of lending.

Founded in 2007,  OnDeck’s $9bn of total lending includes the firm’s lending businesses across the US, Canada and Australia. OnDeck  last week unveiled its latest results showing that  it had seen originations grow by 27 per cent to $587m, revenue up 19 per cent to $50m.

Of course much of its growth has come from its core US business, but says Cameron Poolman, chief executive officer for OnDeck Australia, while Australia has been a relatively slow fintech adopter, it is in comparison to the US market scaling in a much shorter time frame and iss likely to reach maturity in less than six years, instead of the twelve years it took in the US.

“As a mature market, US online lenders are competing on equal terms with traditional lenders on key metrics,” he said. “Australia is now the second largest alternative finance market in the Asia Pacific region, growing at 37 per cent annually," he said.

“However, while the total size of the alternative finance market in Australia is now 25 times the size it was in 2013, our market is still an emerging online lending market," he added.

It estimates that by 2020 its Australian market will sustain nearly $1.5bn (US) of annual originations.

OnDeck says at present 93 per cent of Australian small business owners, recently polled, who were aware of alternative options like online lending, perceived it as a good thing for their business.

In addition of the 25 per cent of Australian SMEs considering finance in the next year, 33 per cent said they would consider an online lender.