DLA Piper has advised US-based On Deck Capital, Inc. on its joint venture with MYOB and a group of local investors to create On Deck Capital Australia Pty Ltd.

Australia is On Deck’s first market outside North America. In expanding to Australia, On Deck has partnered with MYOB and a group of prominent Australian technology investors including Andrew Bassat and Jason Lenga (Seek), Gavin Solsky (Healthshare) and Cameron Poolman (Graysonline).

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. Headquartered in New York City, 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 said: “Australia represents an exciting growth opportunity. 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. 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. For more information, please visit www.ondeck.com.au.