Fewer S.B.A. loans are reaching the smallest, underserved businesses.
And de Botton argues that other core human needs continue to be drastically underserved by the modern business community — providing a fertile opportunity for startups to fashion and forge businesses that are successful exactly because they serve the goal of increasing our wellbeing.
Tableau has identified that there are more than 900 million underserved information workers that need business intelligence.
Opening in Beta today, the premise for Penta is that SMEs and startups are currently underserved by banks and that "business banking can be really awful," co-founder and CEO Lav Odorovic tells me.
The same year, Burkle invested in Combs's clothing line, Sean John, using a hundred million dollars from a CalPERS fund dedicated to financing "underserved" areas and minority-controlled businesses.
By comparison, food and ingredient delivery for businesses is vastly underserved.
Clearly there is a need for this type of lending, and small businesses are being underserved.
"SME, startups and growing software companies working to really build businesses are completely underserved in this market," he argues.
Part of the company's growth up to now has had to do with the platform gaining popularity and a higher profile — "small businesses are massively underserved by the current markets and banks," Desai says — but part of it is also because of the investors stepping up to loan money.
