Lending startup backed by Altman, JPMorgan teams up with Amazon
Slope, a credit startup that uses artificial intelligence to review businesses, is partnering with Amazon Starting Tuesday, Amazon will provide a reusable line of credit to its sellers. JPMorgan Chase The company told CNBC it provided a private credit facility.
The new relationship means eligible US Amazon sellers can apply for and access capital directly through their Amazon Seller account with real-time approvals.
Slope was co-founded by CEO Lawrence Lin Murata, who said he saw the ups and downs of running a small business while growing up in São Paulo.
Lin Murata helped his parents in the toy shop that his family ran for over thirty years. As he learned more about business finances, he said he realized cash flow was a big pain point for his parents and other small businesses.
This led him to co-found Slope, with co-founder Alice Deng, an AI-powered lending platform backed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and JPMorgan Chase.
“By leveraging artificial intelligence, we are able to underwrite these businesses and handle all the complexity of risk assessment for a business,” said Lin Murata. “At the same time [we’re] We provide them with a very easy, real-time experience.”
Lines of credit will start with an 8.99% annual yield and will require sellers to operate with more than $100,000 in annual revenue for at least one year, according to Slope. Once approved, Amazon sellers can withdraw money from the line as needed and choose a period of three months to a year to align the refund with their inventory cycles. Scope did not disclose the financial aspects of its deal with Amazon.
“Most people don’t realize that sellers, independent sellers, are the backbone of Amazon and e-commerce in general,” Deng told CNBC. “Over 60% of Amazon’s sales are driven by independent sellers.”
Deng said Slope fills a gap with the new partnership. Currently, Amazon sellers can use some third parties to access capital, but Deng said those startups are focused on smaller sellers, while Slope is focused on mature sellers, some of which reach hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue and require bank-level financing.
When Amazon launched its own loan about four years ago, the total addressable market was between $1 billion and $2 billion, Deng said. With Slope taking over the program, the company expects that number to increase.
“We’re excited about our work with Slope expanding the financing tools available to Amazon affiliates,” an Amazon spokesperson told CNBC. “Access to adequate capital is a critical need for small business owners, whether they are just starting out or looking to expand, and we are always evaluating new ways to empower sellers to succeed on the Amazon store.”
Lin Murata said that with Slope’s new deal, sellers can take a few minutes directly through Amazon Seller Central to apply for capital and receive near-instant approval using proprietary Amazon performance data and Slope’s in-house broad language model.
“This is one of the reasons why we can offer a more attractive offer than if you were outside the Amazon dashboard,” Lin Murata said. “Then we make real-time decisions, so we analyze Amazon performance, data and cash flow in real time.”
According to the Slope co-founders, this process is easier, faster and more integrated than applying for a loan from banks as a small business. They said that with the detailed data Amazon provides (e.g., a breakdown of sales by product), the AI model can make a more informed decision about financing for a bank based on public financial documentation.
With the new agreement, Amazon joins Slope’s already growing customer portfolio. SAMSUNG, Alibaba’sIkea and more.
Deng and Lin Murata said the company has been trialling the new Amazon integration, and although the trial has only been live for a few weeks, the duo said they’ve seen significant demand and applications increase by 300% week over week.
“Going back to my parents’ initial inspiration, I think we want to be the credit intelligence layer of these businesses,” Lin Murata said. “Ultimately, what we’re really doing is helping these businesses grow by giving them fair, affordable, fast and very easy access to different forms of financing.”
