NerdWallet acquires small business loan marketplace Fundera
Financial guidance company announced at the end of last week that it has acquired . New York City-based was co-founded in 2013 by Jared Hecht, who previously co-founded GroupMe. It , subsequently expanding into other areas like legal services, while also (like NerdWallet) offering free financial content.
“It can be the wild wild west out there for small business owners,” Hecht said in a statement. “Finding the financial products and the guidance needed to start, grow and fund their businesses can be very challenging, and most small business owners don’t have a resource or partner to support them along their journey. Bringing transparency to this process and educating, empowering and advocating for business owners is so similar to what we see doing in the consumer space.”
And of course, small businesses may be in particularly dire need of assistance now, given the impact of the pandemic.
According to , Fundera will operate as a subsidiary of NerdWallet, with the entire team making the transition. The goal is to help NerdWallet expand into the small- and medium-business market with both content and actual financing.
“Although we offer free tools and content, we’ve never been able to fully support small business owners — that changes today,” said NerdWallet co-founder and CEO Tim Chen. “Fundera has been one of our partners for several years and their deep understanding of the SMB market, the long-standing, trusted relationships they’ve built with both lenders and business owners, and their commitment to putting the needs of small business owners first is really unique and impressive.”
The financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Fundera had raised $18.9 million in funding from investors including QED Investors, Khosla Ventures, First Round Capital and Susquehanna Growth Equity, .
This is NerdWallet’s second acquisition of 2020, having . The company says it’s been growing and profitable for the past several years.

