'Hundreds of thousands of businesses in the United States can now get access to capital,': C2FO Head of Capital Markets
C2FO Head of Capital Markets Ashish Jain joined Yahoo Finance live to discuss C2FO's partnership with Marcus by Goldman Sachs and how it will help American businesses.
Video Transcript
ADAM SHAPIRO: And joining us now to discuss their new partnership with Goldman Sachs and Marcus, the bank there, is the CEO, the head, at least. Ashish Jain, good to have you here. And did you approach Goldman? Did they approach you? Because there's been a lot of criticism on the part of banks. They weren't lending to businesses and still aren't. Things are still tight.
ASHISH JAIN: Adam and Seana, thank you for having me. We're really excited to be announcing this partnership between Marcus by Goldman Sachs and C2FO, a platform of over one million businesses globally. And now through this partnership, hundreds of thousands of businesses in the United States can now get access to capital via Marcus's lines of credit. The partnership was very much a natural one coming together. We've had a relationship now for a couple of years.
And I think the important thing to highlight-- and you both know this-- the economy is reopening at a rapid pace. It is critical to be helping small businesses play their part in it. And we're doing our fair share.
SEANA SMITH: And talk about doing your fair share. When you talk to those businesses, the small businesses that you're now in contact with all the time, what are you hearing from them? I guess, what is their current situation compared to what it was six or eight months ago?
ASHISH JAIN: That's an excellent question. I mean, if we look at all the headlines out there, GDP in Q1 printed 6.4%. In Q2, we'll have double digit growth. The economy is booming. But if you look underneath the surface, small businesses do have their struggles. As you both know, over 40% of small businesses still have not fully reopened post-pandemic. And then couple that with the fact that most small businesses run out of cash in 27 days. So it varies by different sectors, but businesses still need affordable, easy access to capital. And that's where it's very critical. We played this important role.
ADAM SHAPIRO: So, I mean, Lord knows small businesses need the cash, and God knows that Goldman Sachs has it through Marcus Bank. How does your platform connect the small business owner with that pile of dough?
ASHISH JAIN: I'm glad you asked. So our platform of 1.2 million businesses easily connects into the C2FO platform. And through that, they're able to connect into the buyers of their goods. So what I mean by buyers are these are Fortune 1,000 companies that we all know. These are brands like Costco, Pfizer, McKesson. And so, through our platform, those businesses are able to get an acceleration of payment on their invoices.
With the Marcus offering specifically, Marcus, really, I think what they saw in us was this unique ecosystem of businesses. What we've created is really a community of commerce with very interesting data insights and values. So if you look at some of the other platforms Marcus is partnering with, like Amazon and Walmart, which they announced last year, what do we all provide? We provide trusted access to get businesses capital that they need.
