In the News, Press Release

Autobooks Acquires Minute Lender, Delivers a Complete Small Business Solution Connecting Payments, Accounting, and Lending

Autobooks has acquired MinuteLender, a lending technology provider trusted by financial institutions nationwide. The acquisition adds small business lending to the Autobooks solution, connecting payments, accounting, and credit in one experience inside digital banking. Financial institutions can now help their customers get paid, manage cash flow, and access working capital, all in one place.

Detroit, Michigan, March 7, 2026 — Autobooks, a leading provider of invoicing, payments, accounting, and cash flow management tools integrated within digital banking, today announced the acquisition of MinuteLender, a lending technology provider that helps financial institutions originate small business loans quickly and affordably. With this acquisition, Autobooks now offers a complete small business solution that connects payments, accounting, and lending.

Small businesses often piece together payments, accounting and lending across multiple providers. That fragmentation weakens the primary bank relationship. At the same time, financial institutions have struggled to make small-dollar lending work economically – not because they lack interest, but because the structure of traditional banking systems make small business lending difficult and expensive. The cost of underwriting a small business loan (often less than $250k) can approach the profit from the loan itself.

The MinuteLender acquisition changes that. By embedding payments, accounting and credit into one digital experience, financial institutions can increase engagement inside digital banking, expand credit access responsibly and efficiently to strengthen customer loyalty and capture more lifetime value. When credit is informed by real operating data, it becomes more precise, more personalized and more powerful. And when its delivered inside digital banking, it reinforces - not replaces - the financial institution.

"This acquisition helps us deliver a unified small business platform.” Says Steve Robert, CEO of Autobooks. “With MinuteLender now part of Autobooks, financial institutions can offer a connected experience where invoicing, payments, bill pay, accounting, and lending all work together. The data that already flows through Autobooks (invoices sent, payments received, bills paid) is exactly the data that makes for smarter lending decisions. This isn’t another point solution. It’s a connected small business ecosystem built for modern banking. Our role is to strengthen the financial system, leveraging technology to lower the cost-to-serve SMBs, while preserving the trusted bank relationship."

As part of Autobooks’ evolving Capital solutions, MinuteLender gives financial institutions a faster, lower-cost way to originate small business loans. Financial institutions establish the credit criteria. Autobooks will automate the decision, generate the documentation and handle funding, often same or next day. The loans stay on the financial institution's balance sheet.

With small business formations at record highs (more than 500k new businesses created per month in late 2025), we believe financial institutions are in the catbird seat. The issue is not demand. The issue is delivery. Traditional underwriting relies on lagging financials, tax returns and human intervention, which slows decisions, increases cost and weakens competitiveness.

Autobooks Capital aims to help financial institutions drive measurable impact:

  • Increased Loan Growth without Proportional Risk. Embedded lending increases conversion rates because offers are contextual and timely.

  • Improved Net Interest Income. Working capital products and short-duration loans generate attractive yields. By embedding within digital banking, institutions retain balances that might otherwise migrate to alternative lenders.

  • Stronger Deposit Retention. When lending, receivables, payables and operating accounts are unified, businesses are less likely to fragment relationships. This stabilizes deposits and improves lifetime value per customer.

To learn more about the acquisition, including a detailed blog post from Steve Robert, visit www.autobooks.co/autobooks-acquires-minutelender.

About Autobooks

Autobooks helps financial institutions bring payments, accounting, bill pay, and lending together in one connected experience inside digital banking. Instead of stitching together separate vendors, banks and credit unions use Autobooks to give their small business customers the tools to get paid, pay others, manage their books, and access working capital, all in one place. Based in Detroit, Autobooks is trusted by thousands of financial institutions nationwide to help them deepen small business relationships.

Autobooks is integrated into all major service providers. If you are a bank or credit union that’s ready to get serious about small business, contact your digital or core-banking provider and ask to enable Autobooks.

"Our role is to strengthen the financial system, leveraging technology to lower the cost-to-serve SMBs, while preserving the trusted bank relationship."  – Steve Robert, CEO of Autobooks

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