It in its earnings report, Square said the low sequential quarterly growth was “largely due to the delayed signing of two new investors, which was a result of more challenging credit market conditions.”
Square thus finds itself exposed to the vagaries of the credit markets while delving further in the highly competitive small-business loan industry. Big players in the business include American Express Co., PayPal Holdings Inc., CAN Capital Inc., On Deck Capital Inc. and Kabbage Inc. The newest entrant is Shopify Inc., an Ottawa, Ontario-based e-commerce platform and merchant processor.
But there are dozens more. Jared Drieling, business intelligence manager at The Strawhecker Group, an Omaha, Neb.-based merchant-acquiring consultancy, keeps a list the players in the merchant-lending niche.
“There are a good 25 that have loan volumes of $20 million or more a year,” Drieling tells Digital Transactions News, adding that there are more providers below that threshold.