American Express Buys Fintech Lender Kabbage: 'A Fully Digital Suite Of Financial Products'

American Express Company AXP has entered a definitive agreement for an outright acquisition of Kabbage, an online fintech lender backed by Softbank, the financial services company said Monday. 

What Happened: American Express said it will acquire Kabbage's team, data platform, IP and fintech products.

“For several years, American Express has been expanding beyond our industry-leading commercial card products to offer our business customers a growing set of payment and working capital solutions,” Anna Marrs, AmEx's president of global commercial services, said in a statement. 

"This acquisition accelerates our plans to offer U.S. small businesses an easy and efficient way to manage their payments and cash flow digitally in one place, which is more critical than ever in today’s environment."

Why It Matters: Kabbage spent years improving access to financial services. After the acquisition, American Express said it will leverage Kabbage’s unique technology, products and people to offer a broader set of cash management and working capital solutions to millions of small business customers.

“At Kabbage, we have always made the success of America’s small businesses our primary objective,” Kabbage CEO and co-founder Rob Frohwein said in a statement. 

“We have built a technology and data platform that provides them with the kind of capabilities and insights often reserved for larger businesses. By joining American Express, we can help more small businesses succeed with a fully digital suite of financial products to help them run and grow their companies.”

AXP Price Action: American Express shares were trading down 2.77% at $97.60 at last check Monday. 

Photo courtesy of Kabbage.