After making a national name for itself by using technology to streamline the commercial lending process and becoming a major player in SBA lending, Live Oak Bancshares has now launched an electronic lending platform for small businesses.

The Wilmington-based company, parent of Live Oak Bank (LOB), said in a news release this week that its new eLending program uses Live Oak Portal, a product built internally on top of the Salesforce platform. The initiative exceeded its beta-phase goals, originating more than $20 million in small business loans since August.

Now LOB is ready to make its product widely available to businesses within the bank's existing 11 lending industries, bank spokesman Micah Davis said in an email Wednesday. If all goes well, the program could expand.

"For now we are focused on commercial $75K-$350K loans in our existing verticals, [but] we are open to exploring additional opportunities with industries beyond our existing verticals," he added.

Live Oak Portal creates an efficient process for borrowers, according to the release. Customers can upload all loan documentation, fill out online forms and electronically sign all documents. Credit decisions will be made by the bank’s eLending team.

Those efficiencies will give the bank a competitive edge in the lending market, bank president Neil Underwood said. The eLending program will be on terms “that won’t eat through the business’ cash flow.”

“We plan to compete with bank and non-bank lenders with a completely transparent lending experience. Customers can expect to get a loan decision within 48 hours of a completed application, with a dedicated eLender to work with along the way. As a bank, we have the advantage of a lower cost of funds than non-bank lenders, which we pass on to our customers, giving them a lower monthly payment.”

Jason Lumpkin, who has been with LOB since 2011 and has worked most recently in its Emerging Markets division, is leading the eLending initiative. His team is working to expand the eLending platform to industry partners, providing a “white label” program that other lenders can brand, the release stated.

Lumpkin “has a solid foundation for how Live Oak does business and will be able to help us scale so we can continue to support small business growth nationwide,” Greg Thompson, the bank’s COO, said in the release.  

Officials expect that the Live Oak Portal technology will be useful to borrowers of larger amounts – up to $5 million – within its select industries as well as for smaller eLending borrowers.

“All customers can now take advantage of the technology-driven loan origination process,” Thompson said in the release. “eLending allows us to provide small loan financing for less complex needs. The same Portal technology significantly improves the customer experience for our larger loans that are inherently more complicated.”