ASX-listed FlexiGroup has taken a minority equity interest in online, non-bank small to medium business lender Kikka Capital. This investment continues the trend by large, established bank and non-bank lenders to compete in the emerging fintech sector by taking selective equity stakes in smaller potential rivals. The deal was announced yesterday to the ASX by FlexiGroup, which said it had invested A$2 million in equity, with an option to increase its investment in the future. The listed lender will also provide a funding line to Kikka.In return, FlexiGroup will have access to Kikka's risk based credit decisioning and pricing engine that can assess the cash flow of a business in real time to determine an appropriate loan size and interest rate. Kikka said its credit model, which aims to provide 'growth capital' of up to $100,000 to SMEs via a revolving line of credit, is based on that used by Kabbage, a US business loan provider that has lent over $US1.6 billion to over 100,000 businesses.Based on this proprietary technology, Kikka claimed bragging rights for "the fastest origination process currently in the market" - a platform that can approve a loan online in seven minutes.Through this partnership, FlexiGroup will be able to market a 'white label' version of the Kikka platform to its customers. FlexiGroup's chief executive officer, Symon Brewis-Weston, said this deal would allow his company to expand the range of products it offers to "the established SME market segment."FlexiGroup has provided asset-backed financing to Australian businesses since 2009, so the Kikka deal will add the alternative of unsecured loans, Brewis-Weston observed.For its part, Kikka unashamedly has its eyes on gaining exposure to Flexigroup's distribution network of over 16,000 merchants across the country, with a customer base of more than 700,000 borrowers, which it expects to be "transformative for the Kikka customer origination strategy." David Brennan, Kikka Capital's founder and CEO, said FlexiGroup's investment provided "access to capital and the ability to commercialise our product at scale." FlexiGroup has the option to appoint a director to the Kikka Capital board.