Can't get a business loan? This new credit card might change that

Fast Company

6 days ago

Entrepreneurs and prospective business owners, looking for ways to finance their budding companies, often run into a problem: Their personal credit scores are low, making it difficult to access the loans they may need to lease a storefront or buy equipment. A solution may be on the way.
Fintech company Nav is launching new features to its signature credit card to help entrepreneurs build their personal and business credit simultaneously. The card—called the Nav Prime Card—is designed to help small business owners get their operations off the ground. Many of those entrepreneurs rely on their personal credit, at the very early stages, to get those operations going. As such, it's a product designed for 'Main Street' small businesses, rather than startups or those seeking VC or investor financing.
The Nav Prime Card itself actually launched in 2023, and the features that allow for simultaneous credit-building (which are optional) are launching this summer.
In effect, the Nav Prime Card helps those small business owners build their own credit scores and the credit profile of their businesses at the same time, and there's nothing else like it on the market, says Nav's CEO and co-founder, Levi King.
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A credit product born of small business experience
'The whole thing was born from my experience as a small business owner,' he says. 'I started out fixing electric signs,' he says, and found issues trying to get the equipment he needed—such as a truck—due to his business having a small or no credit profile, and his personal credit not quite cutting it for lenders. So, the idea was born to help small business owners in similar situations get access to the credit they need, and boost their personal and business credit profiles.
'When you start a business, the credit bureaus have a record that you exist, but you'll appear 'high-risk' because you're brand new and have no credit history,' he says. So, Nav developed the Prime Card, creating something that didn't yet exist, and in a sort of gray area that many other fintech leaders weren't paying attention to.
'I could see the opportunity before other people,' King says, referring to his days operating an electrical sign business. 'If you're in Silicon Valley, you get an MBA at Stanford, you're not looking at small businesses. My background, as a small business owner, helped me see a future that others couldn't.'
A big potential impact
There's a big potential pool of customers, too, who could be interested. Nav cites data that shows almost 70% of small business owners have a credit score below 670. And people are starting businesses like never before—the most recent Census Bureau data shows that almost 5.5 million new businesses were launched in the U.S. during 2023, which is an increase of almost 57% from 2019.
So far, too, King says that the people who have tried the card 'love it.'
Investors love it, too. Randy Komisar, a member of the Board of Directors—and a Silicon Valley heavyweight who founded Claris and TiVo, was also the CEO of LucasArts Entertainment and Crystal Dynamics, among many other things—says that King's vision presents a big opportunity and solves a real problem for small businesses.
'I want to use the power and resources available to me to try and solve this problem: How can we make the small business sector stronger and more viable, and use technology to help?' he says. 'When Levi came to me with his idea,' he continues, 'I saw it as an opportunity to have a similar impact to Intuit—for what Intuit did for bookkeeping.'
While it's unlikely that Nav will grow to the mammoth scale of a company like Intuit, Komisar believes the company's future is bright, as it aims to address 'real' problems for small business owners.
'I'm very enthusiastic about a plan that uses credit information to allow small businesses to manage their growth and sustainability in a way that they're ill-equipped to do with the tools today,' he says.