Lendio Announces Karen Peterson as New CMO

In this newly created role, Peterson will lead strategic marketing across all divisions of the company with a focus on driving brand growth

Lehi, Utah – July 30, 2020 – Lendio, the nation’s leading marketplace for small business loans, today announced Karen Peterson has joined the company as Chief Marketing Officer. In this newly created role, Peterson will lead a high-performing marketing and communications team with oversight of brand strategy, demand generation, content marketing, messaging and creative across all divisions of the company.

Prior to her appointment at Lendio, she most recently served as Chief Marketing Officer for BrainStorm, Inc. Before that, Peterson spent over a decade at Ancestry, where she helped launch the Canadian market, and rose to the position of Senior Vice President, U.S. Marketing. She credits her time at Ancestry for allowing her to focus on the human side of branding and marketing while working within a high-growth enterprise.

“I believe that marketing is a discipline, not a department, and I’m thrilled to bring my passion for branding and performance-based marketing to the Lendio team,” said Peterson. “Lendio meets the needs of a population not being served in traditional banking, and I was instantly attracted to both the mission-driven culture and the opportunity to make a meaningful impact at a local level.”

Lendio announced a $55M Series E funding round, led by Mercato Partners, in early 2020. With this investment, Lendio is increasing the scope and precision of its loan marketplace while expanding its bookkeeping, franchising and lender services divisions. In April, the company launched a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan application for small businesses and has since facilitated more than $8 billion in PPP loan approvals. Lendio is also partnering with financial institutions across the country to power the forgiveness application process for PPP loans.

“We are excited to welcome Karen at this critical time in Lendio’s growth,” said Brock Blake CEO and co-founder of Lendio. “In the last four months alone we have hired over 200 employees and onboarded more than 200 new lenders. Karen joins a team that is passionate about both saving the American dream in the short term and furthering the economic impact of lending to small businesses for years to come.”

Peterson comes to Lendio with experience in all strategic and functional aspects of marketing, including digital and corporate marketing strategy, customer lifecycle management, product development and market research. This expertise will allow her to scale Lendio’s marketing division as the company continues to grow to meet the demand for small business capital and bookkeeping solutions.

“Small business owners have faced unprecedented challenges this year. It’s estimated that nearly half of the businesses that received a PPP or disaster loan in the wake of COVID-19 will need additional funding in the next year,” continued Blake. “As an advocate for small businesses and bridge between lenders and borrowers, Lendio provides financial solutions that will not only help small businesses rebuild in the short term but also thrive in the long term. We’re thrilled to have Karen on board helping to share Lendio’s value proposition with the small business community.”

Peterson holds a B.S. in English and Criminal Justice from Radford University, and an MBA in Marketing and Marketing Analysis from Brigham Young University Marriott School of Business. She currently lives in Utah with her husband and four children and is passionate about increasing accessibility to adaptive sports through her family’s non-profit, Utah Teen Adaptive Hope.