Introducing Corbel

I’ve been unusually quiet over the past few months, and thankfully, it’s been for the best of reasons. We’ve been heads down building and working with customers, and today, I’m thrilled to announce our new name and the public launch of our platform: Corbel Payments.

Who are we?

At Corbel, we give equipment manufacturers and distributors a game-changing tool: a single, integrated financing platform that caters to all types of buyers and empowers sales teams with the transparency and speed they need to confidently lead their sales with monthly payments. By eliminating archaic forms, iterative submissions, and days-long approval processes, we streamline the financing journey and enable sales reps to close more deals, faster. 

With Corbel, buyers purchase the equipment they need to grow their business, merchants significantly speed up their sales cycles with higher order values, and lenders gain access to highly vetted deal flow that is tailored to their credit box. Win, win, win all around.

What’s in the name?

In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece that juts from a wall to support elements above it, such as roofs and balconies. At Corbel, our mission is to be the infrastructure of support for business owners, empowering merchants to offer installment payments to their customers and enabling commercial buyers to effortlessly purchase the capital equipment that is essential to their growth and success. 

We love this name as it captures the ethos of who we are: Equipment Finance is the trillion-dollar industry that most people have never heard of, so it seems fitting to choose a name of an obscure item that is actually pretty commonplace and make it cool again.

Why Corbel Payments and not Corbel Finance? 

Well, a number of reasons here:

1. We’re not a finance company; we’re a tech company.

2. Installments are the de facto method of paying for equipment in the US. Over 80% of businesses use some method of credit when buying equipment, and our ultimate goal is to make paying in installments as easy as paying with a credit card.

3. Part of the amazingly layered complexity of this industry is that there is traditional financing (EFA’s, Dollar buyouts etc.) but there’s also true leasing structures, akin to the world of auto finance. We felt that Payments more holistically captured this wide array of payment options: no matter how the customer wants to pay, we will build a beautiful product to help them do so, easily.

A few truths we hold by:

• Your average equipment merchant and small business owner is not an expert in finance. Nor should they be. That’s why we’re building a platform that is modern, sleek, and most importantly, intuitive for everyone.
• Financing and leasing are complicated. Crack open the hood, and there’s a sophisticated layer of technology and credit-focused piping that makes this whole platform hum. You’ll definitely be hearing more on this in later posts because I’m a credit geek at heart, and nothing brings me more joy than talking about this (well, maybe a few things. But just a few…).
• This is a fintech concept that has been built in every other corner of financial services: from auto, the most obvious corollary to our industry, to mortgage, to generic small business lending. It is inevitable that a bespoke solution will be built for this industry as well, and we are fiercely driven to be the ones to do so.

On a personal note

I am grateful to be on this journey with my two partners: Mike Mallin, the product expert and straight-talking bald guy who actually fits in at equipment trade shows, and Dor Litay, the tech whiz from 8200 who can truly code anything. A diverse team, we celebrate our uniqueness and similarities with a commitment to building a company that sits at the intersection of many worlds and harnesses that as an advantage to magically become greater than simply the sum of its parts.

And that’s a wrap. Let’s go support American businesses!

Curious to learn more? Don’t be shy! Hit me up at leora@corbelpay.com.