Entrepreneur Mitch Jacobs founded OnDeck in 2006 and headquartered the company in New York City. Jacobs sought funding from VCs companies, with early investors including First Round Capital, Khosla, Village Ventures, Contour Venture Partners, RRE Ventures, SAP Ventures, Google Ventures and Tiger Global Management. OnDeck uses proprietary software to aggregate data about a business’ operations, which is processed by an algorithm that determines loan eligibility. In 2007, the company introduced its short-term loan product and made its first loan, and by early 2010, the company had made over $50M in loans to small businesses in the U.S. Jacobs left OnDeck in 2012, and Noah Breslow became the CEO. OnDeck completed its IPO in December 2014 and became listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ONDK, raising $230 million in the offering. OnDeck launched a line of credit offering, and extended its term loans to up to 36 months. In 2015, the company expanded its operations into Canada and Australia, the latter operating as On Deck Capital Australia Pty Ltd in partnership with MYOB. “As a subsidiary of On Deck Capital Inc., OnDeck launched in Australia in 2015, with the aim of providing efficient financing to Australian small businesses. The On Deck Group operates in Australia, USA and Canada, and since its inception in 2007, The On Deck Group has loaned over $10 billion to over 80,000 small businesses. In Australia, operates in partnership with MYOB, Australia’s largest accounting software provider. Australia offers business loans from $10,000 - $250,000 over 6-24 month terms. Using cutting-edge technology, and the proprietary OnDeck Score® System, OnDeck evaluates businesses based on their performance, not only the business owners’ personal credit score. This enables OnDeck to say ‘yes’ faster, and more often, to Australian small businesses across over 700 industries. OnDeck’s online loan application takes only 10 minutes. To get started on an application, all you need is 3 months recent bank statements – no mounds of paperwork. If approved for a loan, you could receive funding in as fast as 1 business day, so you can get on with your business.” In January 2020, OnDeck announced the appointment of Scott Totman as the company's Chief Product and Technology Officer.
Partnerships
In June 2016, JPMorgan Chase made a deal with OnDeck to offer an online lending process to its small business customers. The bank uses OnDeck’s origination and loan servicing technology to supply small businesses with same or next-day funding. JPMorgan Chase and OnDeck announced an extension of their collaboration in August 2017. OnDeck’s referral partners include Intuit QuickBooks, Angie’s List, Prosper Marketplace, Credit Karma, Wave Accounting, and WEX Inc. OnDeck is a founding member of the Innovative Lending Platform Association, a trade organization representing online lending and service companies that serve small businesses. In 2016, the ILPA, in partnership with the Association for Enterprise Opportunity, launched The SMART Box, a “model small business pricing disclosure...focused on empowering small businesses to better assess and compare finance options.” OnDeck also partners with SCORE, an American non-profit that provides small businesses with free advice and mentors.
Criticisms
OnDeck Capital has been criticised for its high interest rates. In 2015, its average loan had an annual 51% interest rate. In 2014, Bloomberg BusinessWeek called OnDeck "payday lending for businesses", relying on brokers who were "less-than-scrupulous."
