Google to Offer Business Loans Via Lending Club

Google is trying a new tactic to lure businesses to expand its own reach: Cold, hard cash.

The search giant said on Thursday that it will begin offering low-interest loans to businesses that resell Google business software. The goal is to make it easy for these resellers to invest in growth of their own businesses, which in turn will grow Google’s business.

Google is offering the program with the help of Lending Club, an online platform where people and businesses secure loans from individual investors rather than banks. The companies said eligible businesses can secure up to $600,000 in a two-year loan. Businesses will pay interest only in the first year, to give them a year to invest and grow before paying more back in the second year. All of the loan payments happen on Lending Club.

For Lending Club, the partnership is a sign of its ambition to get more corporations using the platform to offer loans to their partners or employees. A year ago, I reported that Lending Club and Google were in discussions that would have resulted in Google offering low-interest loans to employees using the Lending Club online platform. Those talks do not appear to have resulted in a deal.

Google’s late-stage investment arm Google Capital invested in Lending Club in 2013. Lending Club’s stock jumped more than five percent in early trading.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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