SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Womply, the local commerce platform that provides apps, APIs, marketing, and financial tools to make local commerce happen, today announced an integrated partnership with Benworth Capital, a minority owned, and mission driven lender focusing on low-and-middle income minority borrowers. Benworth joins Womply’s PPP Fast Lane program, which enables the smallest businesses to access vital Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funding with as little friction as possible, while helping borrowers remain compliant and minimizing program fraud.
PPP Fast Lane was built to service the under-served eligible businesses (and workers) that have so far had difficulty accessing the Paycheck Protection Program. These eligible borrowers, which include micro businesses, gig-workers, independent contractors, among others, are frequently found in low-and-middle income and minority communities, making program access all the more important.
Womply data also shows that as businesses get smaller they are less likely to:
- Know they may be eligible for PPP
- Know how to apply for PPP
- Have a trusted advisor or banker who can help them understand the rules and apply
PPP Fast Lane is a simple, web-based data collection process aiming to simplify the PPP process by removing friction that only applies to larger businesses. PPP Fast Lane includes multiple layers of fraud prevention and identity verification, which is essential to serving PPP loans at scale in accordance with government rules. Borrowers don’t need a registered business entity, business license, official place of business, business bank account, accountant, lawyer, or business banker to apply for PPP. Immediately after completing PPP Fast Lane, applicants will be matched with their SBA approved lender.
During the first round of the PPP, minority-owned businesses were far more likely to wait to receive funds, and less likely to receive them at all. The SBA has responded to these criticisms with efforts to improve access. This partnership is focused on eliminating any additional barriers to the program facing businesses and individuals in the Spanish speaking community. Benworth Capital’s SBA Ayuda program has long supported the Hispanic community and Womply has published translations of PPP documents into multiple languages to help Spanish and other non-English speaking communities access the PPP program. Womply also provides real time multi-lingual support for applicants, and is expected to launch a Spanish language version of PPP Fast Lane soon.
“Benworth is dedicated to supporting under-served businesses and individuals and as we fund PPP loans, we want to make sure we’re getting borrowers the money they need as quickly as possible,” said Bernie Navarro, President of Benworth. “The traditional lending community has too-frequently neglected the businesses and individuals who need help most. We are excited to partner with Womply to streamline the PPP application process, especially for our Spanish speaking customers.”
“We’ve deployed our data platform to build PPP Fast lane and help with eligibility, qualification, verification, and fraud detection,” said Womply CEO and co-founder, Toby Scammell. “We’re excited to put our technology to work for Benworth so that together we help as many under-served small businesses as possible.”
It’s free to apply for PPP with PPP Fast Lane and Benworth. There is no credit check for either the individual or business. When in doubt, start your application at womply.com/ppp
Apply now at: womply.com/ppp
Learn more about PPP Fast Lane
Submit press inquiries to Justin Davies: press@womply.com
About Womply
Womply’s mission is to help local businesses thrive in a digital world. Founded in 2011, Womply is a local commerce platform that provides apps, APIs, marketing, and financial tools to make local commerce happen for over 500,000 American businesses and their customers. All of Womply’s products and services are powered by the Womply Commerce Graph, a proprietary data asset that offers the most complete view of local commerce. To learn more, visit www.womply.com or email info@womply.com.
About Benworth
Benworth Capital Partners was formed in 2008 to provide loans to under-served businesses and individuals unable to secure financing from banks, credit unions and other traditional lending sources. As an alternative lender, Benworth provides real estate-secured loans and unsecured loans through its family of companies. In April 2020, Benworth became one of the few non-bank lenders authorized by the SBA and U.S. Department of the Treasury to offer Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Loans. PPP loans are marketed through the SBABizHelp.com and SBBAyuda.com websites.
