OnDeck could size up a small business from its bank account and lend it money within a day. An owner applied online in minutes instead of sitting through a long bank process. OnDeck judged credit with data from bank accounts, sales and payments. When it filed to go public in late 2014, online lending was a hot topic. OnDeck was one of the first such lenders to reach the public market.

Cash Flow Over Paperwork

Mitch Jacobs founded OnDeck in New York in 2006. He had run small businesses himself and found that banks often ignored them. His bet was that a business's daily cash flow said more about its credit than old-fashioned paperwork. OnDeck built its own scoring system and grew through brokers and partnerships with banks. Its loans were often short term, repaid daily or weekly.

Sold for $90 Million

OnDeck priced at $20 a share in December 2014 and rose on its first day. Then the stock fell for years as funding costs and loan losses began to matter more than growth. The 2020 pandemic hit small businesses hard. Later that year Enova International bought OnDeck for about $90 million, far below its debut value. OnDeck continued as a brand inside Enova.

Cover: The Deck of a Warship, Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for the deck of a warship.