GreenSky, an Atlanta-based online lending technology provider, has filed documents to go public with an initial offering of $100 million in shares. The fintech company is currently the third most valuable in the U.S. after Stripe and SoFi.
GreenSky last took in outside capital in 2016, raising $50 million at a $3.6 billion valuation. That investment was from Fifth Third Bank, one of the company’s many bank partners.
Forbes recently listed its valuation as having climbed to $4.5 billion.
Though it has taken outside capital, GreenSky is still majority-owned by founder and CEO David Zalik. Zalik was spotlighted on the cover of Forbes Magazine last year for his unique founder story — including skipping high school and going straight to college as a young teen — and stratospheric success.
GreenSky combines Zalik’s background in financial services, technology, and real estate. The platform gives merchants the ability to offer their consumers financing to get a loan approved in minutes. They began in the home improvement industry, using home improvement contractors as representatives to get their customers to finance projects through the platform.
They have since expanded to the retail and healthcare markets. Say, for example, a patient is seeking an elective medical procedure that they need a loan for. Despite a good credit score, such loans often take a long time to be approved through the traditional banks process. GreenSky allows the patient to apply for a loan from their bank partners through a desktop or mobile application and be approved in minutes.
The company collects money from both sides of the transaction — a fee from both the bank lenders and the contractor or provider marketing their product. The platform and business model’s strength lies in its simplicity, a feature that led them to be named on the 2017 CNBC Disruptor 50 list amongst the likes of airbnb and SpaceX.
GreenSky has been profitable for five years and saw $326 million in revenue last year, according to Bloomberg.
There have been twice as many technology IPOs in 2018 than there were at this point last year. Atlanta marketing technology platform Cardlytics went public in February. Payments provider EVO Payments also filed plans last week for a $100 million IPO.
The GreenSky listing could change before the stock goes public. They plan to list under the symbol GSKY.
