Altman-backed lending startup JPMorgan is teaming up with Amazon

Slope, a lending startup that uses artificial intelligence to screen companies, is partnering with… Amazon Starting Tuesday to provide a reusable line of credit to Amazon sellers, powered by JPMorgan Chase credit facility, the company told CNBC exclusively.

The new relationship means that eligible US Amazon sellers can apply for and access capital directly through their Amazon seller accounts with real-time approvals.

Slope was co-founded by CEO Lawrence Lin Murata, who said he saw the ups and downs of running a small business while growing up in São Paulo.

Len Murata helped his parents with their family toy store, which they ran for more than three decades. As he gained more knowledge about the company’s finances, he said he realized that cash flow was a major headache for his parents and other small businesses.

This led him to create Slope, an AI-driven lending platform backed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and JPMorgan Chase, with co-founder Alice Deng.

“By leveraging artificial intelligence, we are able to underwrite these companies, and we are able to handle all the complexities of assessing the risks that businesses face,” Lin Murata said. “At the same time, [we’re] “This provides them with a very easy and real-time experience.”

The lines of credit will start at an annual interest rate of 8.99%, according to Slope, and require sellers to be in business for at least one year with annual revenue of more than $100,000. Once approved, Amazon sellers can pull from the line as needed and choose a period ranging from three months to a year to align payment with their inventory cycle. Scoop did not disclose the financial aspects of its deal with Amazon.

“Most people don’t realize that sellers, independent sellers, are kind of the backbone of Amazon and e-commerce in general,” Deng told CNBC. “More than 60% of Amazon sales are driven by independent sellers.”

Ding said Slope fills the gap with the new partnership. Currently, Amazon sellers can use some third parties to access capital, though Ding said these initiatives are more focused on small sellers, while Slope focuses on mature sellers, some of whom have revenues in the hundreds of millions of dollars and require bank-level financing.

When Amazon made its own loans about four years ago, the total addressable market was between $1 billion and $2 billion, Deng said. As Slope takes over the program, the company expects that number to grow.

“We are excited about our work with Slope, which expands the financing tools available to Amazon selling partners,” an Amazon spokesperson told CNBC. “Whether they’re just starting out or looking to grow, access to adequate capital is a critical need for small business owners, and we’re always evaluating new ways to enable sellers to succeed in the Amazon store.”

With Slope’s new deal, sellers can spend a few minutes directly on Amazon Seller Central to apply for capital and get approved almost instantly, using Amazon’s own performance data and Slope’s internal big language model, Lin Murata said.

“That’s one of the reasons we’re able to make a more compelling offer than if you were outside of Amazon’s control panel,” Lin Murata said. “Then we make decisions in real time, so we analyze Amazon’s performance, data and cash flow in real time.”

It’s a process that Slope’s founders say is easier, faster and more integrated than having to apply for loans at banks as a small business. Through the granular data Amazon provides, such as a breakdown of sales by product, they said the AI ​​model is able to make a more informed decision about financing than a bank might make based on aggregate financial documents.

With the new deal, Amazon joins a growing list of Slope customers, which already includes… Samsung, AlibabaIKEA and more.

Ding and Lin Murata said the company piloted the new integration with Amazon, and although the trial was only live for a few weeks, the pair said they saw huge demand and 300% growth in apps weekly.

“Going back to my father’s initial inspiration, I think we want to be the credit intelligence layer for these companies,” Len Murata said. “Ultimately, what we’re really doing is helping these companies grow by giving them fair, affordable, fast and very easy access to different forms of financing.”