American Express is buying Kabbage, the rising-star fintech startup for small businesses

American Express won’t leave home without Kabbage.

The credit card giant is acquiring the Atlanta-based online lender for an undisclosed amount of money, the companies announced today.

The deal highlights Amex’s plan to get even more into the small business market. The company launched Small Business Saturday in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, and it recently committed $200 million to a stimulus aimed at supporting small businesses hurt during the coronavirus pandemic.

Kabbage helps small businesses with banking, online card payments, real-time cash flow calculations, and lines of credit as high as $250,000. In 2017, SoftBank reportedly invested $250 million in the fast-growing startup.

“We have built a technology and data platform that provides [small businesses] with the kind of capabilities and insights often reserved for larger businesses,” Kabbage CEO and cofounder Rob Frohwein said in a written statement. “By joining American Express, we can help more small businesses succeed with a fully digital suite of financial products to help them run and grow their companies.”

Most recently, Kabbage was the second-largest Paycheck Protection Program lender by application volume; it had close to 300,000 approved applications, worth more than $7 billion, according to its website.

Founded in 2009, the company was named for cabbage, which is slang for money.