In just two weeks Memphis-based Paragon approved a million-dollar line of credit
ATLANTA, GA (October 30, 2019) – In mid-2019 Atlanta-based KaZee, a minority-owned healthcare information technology company, experienced a massive growth spurt requiring a quick injection of capital to invest in additional employees, suppliers, equipment, and facilities.
KaZee, a Tennessee company, turned to Memphis-based Paragon Bank, a regional community bank, which KaZee management says immediately understood their situation and need for an immediate and ongoing cash infusion.
“When we searched for a financial partner to help us deal with our rapid growth we settled on Paragon for two key reasons,” explained KaZee CEO and Chairman, Albert Woodard. “First, the bankers at Paragon were by far the most understanding of our needs, and secondly they understood our sense of urgency and were willing to make quick decisions that enabled us to immediately begin performing on the large contracts we had recently been awarded.”
Woodard said he and his management team did thorough due diligence when searching for a banking partner. “We settled on Paragon because it fully understands how today’s robust economy has generated more and more demand for our products and services and instantly recognized our need for capital to continue meeting that demand.”
“Working with Paragon is like having a financial partner just down the hall,” said Woodard. “Two weeks after contacting Paragon we had the capital we needed.”
That’s how paragon planned it when it was founded 15 years ago according to bank First Vice President of Commercial Lending Bill Freeman. “Being a smaller bank enables us to make fast decisions because our CEO is just down the hall from my office,” says Freeman.
“Just like KaZee did its due diligence on us, we also have a department at the bank that handles small and minority businesses, women, African-Americans. etc. We also have a set of criteria called the five C’s – Credit, Character, Collateral, Cash Flow, Capital and Conditions – that we look for in a client. KaZee met them all.”
“Our representative in Atlanta said he had a program that would work for the African-American owned KaZee called “Profit Stars,” explains Freeman. “With this program we buy the invoices from the customer and then give them the capital based on those invoices charging a small front end-fee and then a 2.4 percent of the initial invoice.”
Despite its Memphis headquarters Paragon says serving clients in Atlanta isn’t unusual, particularly small business organizations. “Business owners don’t select a bank because its name is on a sports stadium,” says Freeman. “Ads for community banks never claim they operate like large megabanks. On the other hand in their ads large banks talk about themselves as a community bank, because they know people prefer a personal touch and speedy decisions handled locally, that can only be performed by locally owned institutions.
Freeman explained that Paragon mostly does business out of its offices in Oxford, Mississippi, Atlanta, and, of course, Memphis.
In July KaZee was awarded a $27 million contract with the Department of Corrections in Illinois to streamline and improve the electronic healthcare system of the more than 39,000 adults and juveniles incarcerated in its prisons and detention centers.
About KaZee, Inc. KaZee, Inc., is a leading provider of high-quality information technology (IT) products and services to the healthcare industry. Working with the University of Texas Medical Branch and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, KaZee helped develop and implement one of the first Electronic Health Records Systems in the Country and one of the largest Telemedicine Operations in the World outside of the U.S. Department of Defense. KaZee works with Parkland Hospital today to help support Parkland’s contract with Dallas County to provide quality healthcare to the County’s inmate populations. Both programs have received high recognition for the quality and cost effectiveness of the healthcare they provide their inmates. KaZee is a national firm that supports its customers all across the country. For more information about KaZee visit www.KaZee.us.
About Paragon Bank: Alarmed that the number of mergers and acquisitions were eliminating home-grown independent banks from the local landscape veteran Memphis banker Robert Shaw assembled a financial team to create a bank designed to help local area businesses grow and contribute to improving the community, founding Paragon National Bank. Paragon’s philosophy is to deliver friendly, personalized service and state-of-the-art solutions to help businesses grow. This neighborly, civic-minded quality succeeded by attracting legions of loyal customers, resulting in four banking center locations and numerous awards for being the area’s best community bank and a best place to work over the past 15 years. Headquartered in Memphis, Paragon’s success with small and mid-size business customers has enabled its Small Business Capital Group to flourish and serve businesses around the country. For more information about Paragon visit www.bankparagon.com.
KaZee, Inc 