Company: CAN Capital, New York, NY
Entry Submitted By: Prosek Partners
Company Description: CAN Capital, Inc., established in 1998, is the pioneer and market share leader in alternative small business finance, having provided access to over $4.5 billion in capital for tens of thousands of small businesses in a wide range of locations and different business types.
Nomination Category: New Product & Service Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Financial Services

Nomination Title: CAN Capital's CAN Connect™

Tell the story about this nominated product or service (up to 650 words). Describe its function, features, benefits, and performance to date.

CAN Capital launched CAN Connect™ on June 5th, 2014, as part of the company’s growing suite of integrated technology offerings. CAN Connect™ is a full suite of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) that enables third-party providers, such as payment processors and providers of point of sale (POS) systems and cloud accounting software, to offer their small business customers access to working capital based on merchant data that they already have from the small business owners they serve. With CAN Connect™, sales partners in the merchant services industry are able to offer access to capital (via CAN Capital) directly to their customers through their own existing platforms.

Sales partners and merchants using CAN Connect™ benefit from CAN Capital’s advanced instant quote and application process, which is seamlessly integrated into the sales partner’s existing software applications. Through CAN Connect™, merchants can receive a CAN Instant Quote™ based on data provided by the sales partner. Once the merchant elects to proceed, they are taken through a simple online application process and can obtain access to working capital without ever leaving the sales partner’s platform. Alternatively, sales partners can leverage CAN Capital’s online application interface and pass merchants through a co-branded site.

By providing a suite of standardized APIs to which online sales partners can connect easily, CAN Connect™ presents a “plug and play” business development opportunity that is expected to significantly increase the velocity with which CAN Capital signs up new sales partners and provides their merchants with access to capital. It’s an enormous benefit for both the sales partner and the merchant, and can be quickly and easily integrated with nearly any existing web-based platform.

One benefit to the sales partners that utilize this tool is that it’s a value-add to their customer base. In a world where everyone is trying to find ways to create “stickier” relationships and more loyalty with their customers, offering an added perk to the customer base is a significant benefit and ties the customer directly to the service provider. If CAN Capital and the provider are able to leverage information that the provider has from the customer, CAN Connect™ is creating a tighter loop of loyalty between the two.

To date, CAN Connect™ has secured a number of sales partners, including Fundera, Yodlee, Worldpay and Reliant Funding, to offer access to funding through their platforms via CAN Connect™.

CAN Connect features include:

• CAN Instant Quote™ (CAN IQ™) – Provides provisional working capital options using the customer data that web-based merchant service providers already collect. The CAN Instant Quote™ (CAN IQ™) feature enables CAN Capital and its sales partners to determine the funding amount and type of financial product for which a merchant may be eligible, with no action required from the merchant.

• Pre-Qualification – This is the entry point for the merchant, which provides additional self-reported or verifiable financial data for official pre-qualification.

• Full Submission – Enables the merchant to move from pre-qualification to completed application, providing clear instructions and real-time status updates along the way. The merchant is able to complete the entire submission process without leaving the third party provider’s platform.

• Program/Application Status – Provides sales partners with reporting on closed leads as well as detailed information about all merchant applications in process.

• Intelligent Application Engine – Links the merchant’s pre-populated application into an application and qualification workflow, which can be used by sales partners to collect additional customer data.

In bullet-list form, briefly summarize up to ten (10) of the chief features and benefits of the nominated product or service.

• CAN Instant Quote™ (CAN IQ™) – Provides provisional working capital options using the customer data that web-based merchant service providers already collect, which enables CAN Capital and its sales partners to determine the funding amount and type of financial product for which a merchant may be eligible, with no action required from the merchant.

• Intelligent Application Engine – Links the merchant’s pre-populated application into an application and qualification workflow, which can be used by sales partners to collect additional customer data.

• When partnering with providers of small business financial products, CAN Capital can give those providers ways to facilitate access to capital to all of their small business customers. This benefits them by serving their customer base with a value-add to their other services.