Minneapolis Startup Apruve Brings Fintech Solution To B2B Sales

The problem of extending credit in business-to-business transactions is being targeted by a Minneapolis fintech startup.

Apruve, which has signed customers such as Texas Instruments Incorporated TXN, uses banking partners to extend millions of dollars in credit each month, CEO Michael Noble told Benzinga.

The platform drives sales for its customers, Noble said: The company’s customers have seen a higher order frequency when offering a credit option.

“It just happens to be really cumbersome and manual … and expensive to be a bank for your customer and lend for them every single day,” he said. “We wrote software that automates all of that management component, and then we use the banks to derisk the transaction and underwrite all the orders that are placed on terms.”

Apruve, which went live as a platform one year ago, is backed by Atlanta-based TTV Capital and Palo Alto-based Allegis Capital.

Before Apruve, Noble was integral in the formation of the former file-sharing service LimeWire and the Internet-of-Things startup Xanboo, which AT&T Inc. T purchased in 2010.

International Expansion

Two banks process Apruve transactions, and a third is being added that will allow the company to process international transactions, Noble said, adding that he’s excited about the international market as a potential growth area.

“We are not a bank. We are not an underwriter. It’s a highly regulated industry,” Noble said. “We kind of look to our partners to do all the things they’re good at and we focus on what we’re good at.”

Apruve has signed on another Fortune 500 company “very similar to Texas Instruments” that works in electrical components, Noble said. Another customer sells solar panel parts to installers and distributors, he said. A third sells handheld radios.

Customers tend to be wholesalers, manufacturers or distributors selling a good to a repeat customer, Noble said.

“It’s a very simple, easy way for [a] purchasing team to acquire credit and place orders with different suppliers and wholesalers they use,” Noble said of the Apruve platform.

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________ Image Credit: Apruve CEO Michael Noble. Courtesy photo.