Short term small business lender Kabbage raised a $250 million Series F round from Japan’s SoftBank, bringing their total equity funding to $500 million; according to TechCrunch, Kabbage CEO Rob Frohwein says the funding will be used to expand their US footprint, launch more analytical tools, expand into the Asian market and add new products; when talking with TechCrunch before the round was public, Rob explained the thought process behind going into new products like payments; Frohwein says: “Look at how PayPal and Square have both gone from being payments companies to small business lenders. There is a clear connection between how companies think about those two business areas, so it’s not a giant leap of faith for us to consider this.” Source