{"id":41602,"date":"2023-10-20T15:15:09","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/punched-in-the-guts-moula-digs-in-as-ondeck-prepares-to-enter-the-australian-sme-lending-market-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:15:09","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:15:09","slug":"punched-in-the-guts-moula-digs-in-as-ondeck-prepares-to-enter-the-australian-sme-lending-market-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/punched-in-the-guts-moula-digs-in-as-ondeck-prepares-to-enter-the-australian-sme-lending-market-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Punched in the guts\u2019 Moula digs in as OnDeck prepares to enter the Australian SME lending market – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
When Moula co-founder Aris Allegos heard American competitor OnDeck had chosen Australia as one of the targets for its international expansion, he felt like he\u2019d been punched in the stomach.<\/p>\n
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It\u2019s the moment many startup founders dread: a large well-funded competitor launching in the same market. OnDeck is certainly that. The US online lending portal raised over $US1 billion in its initial public offering late last year.<\/p>\n
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\u201cYour initial reaction is boom, someone\u2019s just punched you in the guts, or called my baby ugly or what have you,\u201d Allegos says.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThat\u2019s the moment of despair. But you\u2019ve got your team around you and you go, well (a) it\u2019s a big enough market, and (b) it helps differentiate us and the path we\u2019re going down.<\/p>\n
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\u201cAnd you just get on with it. But boy it\u2019s a roller coaster.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Like OnDeck, Moula offers loans targeted to small businesses that are quickly approved and get cash in the hands of business owners within one business day.<\/p>\n
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Moula doesn\u2019t have the international ambitions of its larger competitor. Allegos says the limited access to credit data in the Australian small business lending space makes it difficult to apply elsewhere, and believes it\u2019s a problem OnDeck will need to wrestle with. He says in the United States and the United Kingdom there\u2019s a lot of sharing of credit histories, which is not the case in Australia.<\/p>\n
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\u201cCome to Australia and the majors keep the data inside their respective banks,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
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\u201cPositive credit reporting with respect to small business in Australia is effectively non-existent. For us, we thought we need to build that platform in Australia, specifically for Australian businesses.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe will focus entirely on the $12 billion of annual lending that goes into that sub $100,000 space (in Australia).\u201d<\/p>\n
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