OnDeck Announces Small Business Credit Education Initiative

NEW YORK, Feb. 4, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- On Deck Capital, Inc. (NYSE: ONDK), a leading platform for small business loans, today announced their Small Business Credit Education Initiative to educate and engage business owners on business financing and credit. The company's first two commitments to credit education include BusinessLoans.com, a first-of-its-kind resource solely dedicated to explaining business financing, and a national partnership with SCORE, a non-profit organization comprised of 11,000+ volunteer mentors who provide free and confidential small business mentoring and advice.

The Initiative launches in response to OnDeck's latest Main Street Pulse Report, a quarterly study of small business trends, which found that business owners lack a comprehensive resource to learn about their financing options. Key findings from the study included:

• 80 percent of business owners don't think banks do a good job at explaining how to qualify for different business financing products
• 87 percent of business owners have not found an online resource to answer their business financing questions
• 75 percent of business owners are unaware of their financing options
• 66 percent of business owners don't have a strong understanding of how business credit is calculated or how it is used by lenders

"OnDeck has worked with tens of thousands of business owners and we repeatedly hear that small businesses need a go-to resource for general financing education," said Noah Breslow, chief executive officer, OnDeck. "Our company is 100% focused on small businesses and their success, so we see BusinessLoans.com and our SCORE partnership as extensions of our commitment to ensuring all small business owners get the critical tools they need to grow."

While it's necessary for small business owners to find the right funding for their particular business needs, navigating this path is often a challenge. According to a recent study by the Federal Reserve Banks of New York, Atlanta, Cleveland and Philadelphia, small businesses seeking financing spend 24 hours researching and applying for credit. BusinessLoans.com simplifies the process with straightforward, practical guidance as well as up-to-date content to help business owners more easily navigate the world of financing. The site contains information on different types and providers of credit, financing option assessment tools and guides on how to successfully apply for a loan.

Part of credit education is understanding how to run a healthy, successful business. As the sponsor of SCORE's Financing Center for Excellence on www.SCORE.org, OnDeck will provide any small business owner that applies to OnDeck with special access to mentoring and advice from SCORE via a dedicated online experience, and will equip SCORE's 320 chapters nationwide with custom-built educational tools focused on the rapidly evolving small business lending industry.

"Small business owners face a vast and frequently changing landscape for financing, and both OnDeck and SCORE are committed to providing small business owners with the information they need to make informed decisions," said David R. Bobbitt, president of the SCORE Foundation. "Through this partnership with OnDeck, SCORE will enhance our offerings to small business owners, allowing them to better understand available financing options and ultimately achieve success."      

For more information, please visit www.BusinessLoans.com, or ondeck.com/business-financing.

About OnDeck 
OnDeck (NYSE: ONDK), a leading platform for small business loans, is committed to increasing Main Street's access to capital. OnDeck uses advanced lending technology and analytics to assess creditworthiness based on actual operating performance and not solely on personal credit. The OnDeck Score®, the company's proprietary small business credit scoring system, evaluates thousands of data points to deliver a credit decision rapidly and accurately. Small businesses can apply for a line of credit or term loan online in minutes, get a decision immediately and receive funds in as fast as the same day. OnDeck also partners with small business service providers, enabling them to connect their customers to OnDeck financing. OnDeck's diversified loan funding strategy enables the company to fund small business loans from various credit facilities, securitization and the OnDeck Marketplace^TM, a platform that enables institutional investors to purchase small business loans originated by OnDeck. 

Since 2007, OnDeck has deployed more than $1.7 billion to more than 700 different industries in all 50 U.S. states, and also makes small business loans in Canada. The company has an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau and operates the website BusinessLoans.com which provides credit education and information about small business financing. On December 17, 2014, OnDeck started trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker ONDK.

For more information, please visit www.ondeck.com and follow OnDeck on Twitter @OnDeckCapital.

About SCORE
Since 1964, SCORE has helped more than 10 million aspiring entrepreneurs. Each year, SCORE provides small business mentoring, workshops and education to more than 375,000 new and growing small businesses. More than 11,000 business experts volunteer as mentors in over 320 chapters serving local communities with entrepreneur education.

For more information about starting or operating a small business, call 1-800/634-0245 for the SCORE chapter nearest you. Visit SCORE at www.score.org. Connect with SCORE at www.facebook.com/SCOREFans and www.twitter.com/SCOREMentors.

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SOURCE On Deck Capital, Inc.

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