RISING NASDAQ STAR SEEKS DLA PIPER BRISBANE GUIDANCE

DLA Piper Brisbane lawyers have helped advise New York-headquartered On Deck Capital, Inc. on its first project outside the US, a joint venture with MYOB and a group of local investors.

On Deck Capital Australia Pty Ltd. has emerged from a partnership with MYOB and prominent Australian technology investors including Andrew Bassat and Jason Lenga  of Seek, Gavin Solsky of Healthshare and Graysonline's Cameron Poolman.

As part of the arrangements, MYOB will provide valuable local expertise and make the On Deck solution available to its approximately one million business users across Australia.

On Deck is a technology-enabled small business lender that can evaluate, approve and fund small business loans as fast as the same day.

The company has originated more than US$2 billion in loans to small businesses in more than 700 industries across all 50 US states and Canada.

On Deck CEO Noah Breslow says he has taken the service here because of recognising a similar problem in Australia as the US.

"Similar to the U.S. market, in Australia we see a huge gap between small business financing needs and the availability of capital from traditional sources," says Breslow.

"There is significant unmet small business lending demand in Australia, and we believe our online platform is well suited to address the capital needs of Australian small businesses."

The DLA Piper team advising On Deck was led by corporate partners Lyndon Masters and Samantha O'Brien, with assistance from partners Alec Christie (Privacy), Andrew Ball (employment) and James Newnham (Tax) as well as senior associate Elizabeth Ticehurst (employment).

On Deck expects to start making small business loans in Australia in the second half of 2015.