Sunbit cofounders Arad Levertov, Ornit Dweck-Maizel, Tal Riesenfeld and Tamir Hazan launched the company in 2016.
Los Angeles-based lending startup Sunbit has raised $355 million in new debt financing led by JPMorgan Chase, Tokyo-based bank Mizuho and private credit firm Waterfall Asset Management. Sunbit offers consumer loans ranging from $50 to $20,000 for in-person payments at places like car dealerships (for auto repairs), dentist offices and eyewear shops in 47 U.S. states. The new line of credit follows another $310 million debt fundraising Sunbit secured from Citi and Ares earlier this year.
Sunbit cofounder and CEO Arad Levertov, 47, says he has targeted U.S. brick-and-mortar sales for a few reasons. They comprise a huge market, reaching $7 trillion in 2023. There’s much less competition for payment options at physical locations versus online, where checkout pages are crowded with buttons ranging from buy-now, pay-later providers to PayPal and Apple Pay. And the business categories he’s focusing on have loyal customers. “It's non-discretionary, repeatable business. I call it non-Amazonable,” Levertov says. Sunbit charges an average interest rate of 20%—a few percentage points below the average credit card interest rate of 24%—and its loans typically last six to seven months.
The seven-year-old, 550-person company makes more than 100,000 new loans a month, with an average loan size of $1,000. It expects revenue to reach $260 million this year, up........