Citi Uses Branding and Fintech to Bring Merchants Directly to Funders

Citi’s release of Bridge, a virtual loan broker offering merchants a three step process to apply for capital through over a dozen banks, has branched out across seven states and is continuing to grow four months in— according to recent LinkedIn posts from Citi employees.

“I am excited to announce I have been working on a new and innovative platform along with the Citi team for the past few months!” wrote Caitlyn Boyle, Assistant Vice President and member of the team who designed Bridge. “I am extremely proud to be part of such an amazing team, and to assist in building out a great platform to connect small and medium sized businesses with local, regional, and community banks.”

“If you are looking for a loan, do not hesitate to visit our platform!” Boyle wrote.

Richard Banziger, Head of Citi’s U.S. Commercial Bank, commented during the launch of the program about Bridge’s potential to not only improve the application process for merchants, but how the program gives access to capital that will be given to minority business owners who may have never been able to get access to that capital in the past.

“Citi believes in the power of local, small businesses and continues to find ways to support businesses that are the foundation of communities across the U.S. Citi funded loans totaling more than $5 billion as part of the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program during 2020 and 2021.”

“As both a lender and a community stakeholder, we have a deep understanding of the problems businesses face when trying to navigate the borrowing process” said Banziger. “We are committed to finding digital solutions that can make the process easier, more seamless and more equitable.”

According to Citi, Bridge’s goals are broken down into five points. They hope to create liquidity and access to capital, modernize and automate prospecting, add digitization, transparency, and standardization to the loan process, continue to digitize small and medium sized business lending, and democratize the loan process for lenders and brokers.

“Citi prides itself on encouraging a spirit of entrepreneurship among its employees to solve financial access issues and improve digital offerings for our clients and community partners,” said Vanessa Colella, Citi’s Chief Innovation Officer.

Loan options range from as little as $100,000 to as high as $10,000,000.