“Tiny businesses, self-employed individuals and minority communities are left out in the cold, over and over and over. “Millions of businesses were being left out,” said Barry Calhoun, the chief executive of Blueacorn, which was founded last year solely to help companies obtain P.P.P. In return, they took a hefty cut of the fees that lenders made on each loan. Next, they directed those applications to lenders. First, they unleashed marketing blitzes encouraging freelancers, gig workers, sole proprietors and other small merchants to apply for loans through their websites. Rather, they acted as middlemen, charging into a gap between what big banks wouldn’t do and what small banks couldn’t do. loans made this year, the Times analysis found.īlueacorn and Womply aren’t banks, so they couldn’t actually lend any money. Between them, the two companies processed a third of all P.P.P. But this year, they became the breakout stars of the Paycheck Protection Program, the government’s $800 billion relief effort for small businesses.
The other, Womply, founded a decade ago, sold marketing software. One of the companies, Blueacorn, didn’t exist before the pandemic. For their work, the companies stand to collect more than $3 billion in fees, according to a New York Times analysis - far more than any of the 5,200 participating lenders.
Then two small companies came out of nowhere and, through an astute mix of technology and advertising - and the dogged pursuit of an opportunity that big banks missed - found a way to help those businesses. Though Congress approved billions in aid for small companies to help them keep paying their employees during the pandemic, there was a big problem: It wasn’t reaching the tiniest and neediest businesses.
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