Cincinnati's largest bank now owns a fast-growing fintech startup with its largest office in Columbus.
Provide, a digital lender that specializes in acquisitions of healthcare practices, rapidly added new markets and is on track to nearly double its loan volume in the year since it was acquired by Fifth Third Bancorp. (Nasdaq:FITB), said incoming CEO Tim Spence.
"It's been a wonderful addition to the business," Spence told Columbus Business First while in Fifth Third Center downtown. "They close a loan 70% faster than we ever were able to do it.
"There are components of their technology that will help us transform our own core business."
Provide originated $700 million in loans last year and is projected to hit $1.2 billion nationwide this year, he said. Founded in 2013, the digital lender had primarily handled transactions for dental practices, but has added veterinary, optometry and some medical practices since the acquisition closed in August for an undisclosed amount.
As part of the bank, Provide no longer has to devote time to seeking venture capital or banks to back its loans, Spence said. The bank had invested in Provide's Series A.
"They were able to unlock their own pace of innovation," he said.
The co-founders and top executives are in Silicon Valley, but the largest operation center is at 500 S. Front St. in the Brewery District, headed by Chief Administrative Officer Andrew Bennett. Of 205 Provide employees, 68 are in Central Ohio, a spokeswoman said.
Fifth Third projected 2021 revenue of $6 million and $14 million in expenses for Provide, according to an investor fact sheet last June.
After financing a practice acquisition, three out of four customers then turn to Fifth Third for other business banking, he said.
Now president, Spence will succeed retiring CEO Greg Carmichael in July at the ninth-largest U.S.-based consumer bank. Both have backgrounds in tech.
This January, Fifth Third reached a deal to buy San Francisco-based Dividend Finance, which does digital lending for solar and alternative energy projects, reported sister publication Cincinnati Business Courier.
"Acquiring the businesses vs. trying to build the technology on our own accelerates the digital transformation of the company," Spence said.
Spence, who was in Columbus Monday for a regularly scheduled operations review, said he was "very pleased" with the Fifth Third team led by Francie Henry, president for the Central Ohio region.
"This is a fun (review), because it's such a vibrant market," he said. "It's growing on an annual basis two times the population growth."
The growth is well balanced between retail and business banking and wealth management. Fifth Third expects to grow its Columbus-based commercial banking team by more than 20% this year.
Planning is under way along with PACT, or Partners Achieving Community Transformation, for the bank's commitment of $20 million in lending and philanthropy in the Near East Side.
The company's recent move to raise its minimum wage to $20 hourly affected 330 of 510 Central Ohio employees, Henry said.
