Denied PPP loans, small businesses turn to other options for help

HOUSTON - Many small businesses have been frustrated by applying and waiting for a PPP loan, only to find out later they've been declined. Some businesses are now turning to other sources to process their loans and finding success.

When the Small Business Administration began offering Paycheck Protection Program loans, banks only accepted applications from existing business customers. Now many banks take applications from non-customers, including Financial Tech, or FinTech, companies that can help streamline the process.

"We focus on guest room entertainment, tv's, tv mounts, getting them installed," said Dan Sawyers, founder of The Sawyers Company in San Antonio.

Sawyers says their business providing entertainment equipment to hotels stalled when stay home orders began.

"Several projects out in California have been shut down. So that's been pretty dramatic," said Sawyers.

Sawyers says applying for a PPP loan through his usual financial institution led to frustration.  So he says he then applied online through Veem, a global payment processing company.

"They had a link and it took you right to it. And it wasn't a link to put your name or get on a list, it was the PPP application. And it was really straightforward and really smooth," said Sawyers.

Sawyers says after applying through Veem, he had the money in days.

Veem CEO Marwan Forzley tells us, "The simplest way to describe Veem is it's a bank wire replacement service.  It's like Venmo for businesses."

Veem is using its existing payment processing technology to process the PPP loans.

"We provide a lot of reporting to the customer, what happened to your application.  These are all things we did for payments anyway," said Forzley.

Forzley says businesses receive their loan application services at no charge.  He says Veem receives part of the fee the bank receives from the SBA.

Veem's website shows businesses what information to gather to apply.

"Make sure you have all the data you need before you start the application," said Forzley.

Sawyers says getting the money quickly is the help his business needs.

"The loan has been very helpful in meeting payroll.  We haven't laid anybody off and everybody's just doing their normal job," said Sawyers.

Medium.com reports the following FinTech companies provide PPP loan application services:
    •  Kabbage
    •  Veem
    •  Biz2credit
    •  Lendio
    •  Fundera
    •  Paypal
    •  Divvy
    •  BlueVine
    •  OnDeck
    •  Funding Circle
    •  NAV
    •  Ready Capital
    •  Cross River Bank
    •  Square
    •  Paypal
    •  Intuit(Quickbooks)
    •  Credibly
    •  Brex + Womply
    •  Fundbox