Emailed on August 14, 2020 in The Friday Forward

Last week we featured a snippet that Kabbage was in search of a buyer. This week we learned American Express is in advanced talks to acquire the online SMB lender in an all-cash deal that would value the company at as much as $850 million, including retention payments.

Kabbage is one of the fintech companies that jumped in to help small businesses tap into the Paycheck Protection Program despite furloughing hundreds of workers at the beginning of the pandemic.

“AmEx is already the largest provider of small-business credit cards in the country. With Kabbage, it could be a bigger provider of loans to mom and pop shops as well — a strategy it’s already pursuing within its consumer-card business.“— Jennifer Surane, Gillian Tan, Bloomberg.