Lending Express Opens Office in Silicon Valley

Tel Aviv-based Lending Express announced its entrance into the U.S. market yesterday. It opened an office in San Matteo, CA and has officially appointed Moshe Kazimirsky as VP of Strategic Partnerships and Business Development to support the new West Coast office.

“After the immense success we’ve had in the Australian market, we knew that our platform was ready to take on the U.S.,” said Lending Express CEO Eden Amirav.

Lending Express initially launched its business in Australia in October 2016. The company provides an online marketplace that connects merchants to alternative funders. After only a year and a half, Amirav told AltFinanceDaily that Lending Express is now the largest business of its kind in Australia – even though they only set foot on the continent a month ago.  

Meanwhile, Lending Express has also been operating in the U.S. for months and has already partnered with leading online lenders like OnDeck, Kabbage and Fundbox, according to Amirav. Given the company’s experience in both the Australian and American markets, AltFinanceDaily asked Amirav what he thought the differences were.

“In general, they are much more similar than people think,” Amirav said. “But in the U.S., people like to look around more.”

Generally, if an Australian merchant is approved, they will move forward with the deal right away, Amirav said. Lending Express offers a myriad of products on its platform, including equipment financing, invoice funding, business line of credit and merchant cash advance.

So far, Kazimirsky, who has worked in business development for other Silicon Valley technology companies, will be the only one in the new California office. But Amirav anticipates that the office with grow. The Lending Express office in Tel Aviv has 25 employees, many of whom – namely the account managers – start their day at 3 a.m. in order to speak to their Australian and American customers in different time zones.   

Lending Express uses an algorithmic system called MatchScore to pair borrowers with lenders.

Todd Stone was a reporter for AltFinanceDaily.