Enova and Nav Partner Up, Leveraging Data for Instant Funding
February 9, 2022
Intelligent financing platform Nav has announced an expanded partnership with small business lender Enova, bringing a mass amount of data to the X’s and O’s of small business financing approvals and funding processes of companies like OnDeck and Headway Capital, subsidiaries of Enova.
According to a joint press release, the move will create the first two-sided open marketplace in small business lending.
“Two-sided means we are bringing together both the demand and the supply,” said Greg Ott, CEO of Nav. [Nav] is the platform in the middle which allows small businesses to compare their options using the real data that the supplier, say lenders like Enova, use so that the small business owner can understand what they qualify for before they apply.”
As the head of a company that uses the value of data as a business model, Ott spoke about the harvesting of such data in ways that’s mutually benefits all parties.
“It’s all permissible, part of the desire for a lot of companies to get more data is you have to have a value proposition for small business owners to share their data,” said Ott. “Because Nav allows you to compare your options, we connect three commercial bureaus, we connect two personal bureaus, and then we connect the bank accounts so we can see the cash flow data. In certain cases, we may connect with merchant processing data, accounting data, and other data sets that the small business owners connect into our platform.”
While data will provide the merchant with options on different types of financing, the lenders also have a benefit in leveraging data provided by merchants to Nav from a marketing perspective. By having merchants input their own information, Enova and its subsidiaries like OnDeck and Headway Capital can offer those potential borrowers ‘instant funding’.
“I think [instant funding] is something that Enova has tried to do for a long time,” said Jim Granat, Head of Enova SMB. We’re trying to make things where the access to capital is as effortless as possible for the hard working Americans or business owners. We try really hard to take that approach in the way we design our product because in today’s world of ‘always online’ expectations for business owners, we want to provide the type of experience that allows them to have certainty, if it’s at all possible, as fast as they can.”
Granat stressed that effortless access to capital for merchants is the best way to differentiate one funder from another when trying to lend a small business money.
“An effortless experience allows [merchants] to know what they can do for their business as well [lenders] being able to capture the different business owners’ attention at the moment that they need it.”
Funding Circle Partners With Nationwide in Mutual Referral Program
February 1, 2022
Denver-based small business lender Funding Circle announced a partnership with Nationwide Insurance, in a move designed to improve access to capital for businesses that use Nationwide as their insurance providers. The move is a continued trend in the small business financing industry to create access to resources surrounding business financing in places that merchants are interacting with on a daily basis.
“Funding Circle is thrilled to partner with Nationwide to offer essential resources that seamlessly supplement our customers’ business needs and set them up for success in a competitive market,” said Vipul Chhabra, Managing Director of Funding Circle US.
“This first-of-its-kind partnership with one of the country’s leading insurance and financial services providers embodies our core values,” said Chhabra. “[Our values are] to truly support American small business owners in accomplishing their goals, especially among underserved populations that banks typically are not incentivized to reach.”
On top of access to funding, the partnership offers access to resources surrounding small business financing to Nationwide customers. According to a press release by the companies, this is the first merger of a top insurance company with an online lending platform.
“Today’s hardworking business owners have a variety of insurance and financial needs. They are looking for innovative ways to have those needs met so they can focus on running their companies,” said Kasey Ketcham, Associate Vice President of Commercial Digital Enablement at Nationwide.
“This partnership with Funding Circle is another example of Nationwide’s commitment to addressing the challenges small business owners are facing,” said Ketcham. “[Nationwide is] offering expert guidance and comprehensive insurance and lending resources hand-in-hand to help them make informed decisions to fortify their business and livelihoods.”
According to Nationwide, the partnership will be a mutual referral program, where Funding Circle customers will be exposed to Nationwide products, and Nationwide customers will be exposed to Funding Circle products. Nationwide representatives explained the partnership exclusivley to AltFinanceDaily.
“Exactly what is provided through Nationwide.com or the app is a link to Funding Circle,” said a Nationwide representative. “Once there, the user can complete an application for loan coverage, but are not granted special exception because they came from Nationwide.”
“They would still go through the loan application and underwriting for funds and vice versa,” said the representative. “The Funding Circle website/app is providing a link to Nationwide that the user can ‘learn more’ through the Coverage Assistant page, or “get a quote” using Nationwide Business Express.”
Old Hill Partners Upsizes Funding Commitment to ByzFunder up to $40 million
October 19, 2021
New York, October 19, 2021: ByzFunder, the leading non-bank Fintech company, announced a significant upsizing of existing financing from strategic partner Old Hill Partners of up to $40 million. This financing round comes as a substantial increase from Old Hill Partners’ first facility of $12 million in 2020.
In September, ByzFunder closed its record financial performance exceeding $12 million in originations. The finance upsizing from Old Hill enhances ByzFunder’s position as an emerging leader in the business alternative financing space. It provides the assistance needed to advance near-term and long-term priorities in preparation for an anticipated period of significant innovation, growth, and expansion into additional credit tiers.
Ilya Fridman, CEO expressed enthusiasm and confidence about the path ahead; “We have a very exciting journey ahead of us. Our people continue to rally together and outperform with an absolute commitment to excellence, and our platform continues to grow stronger, more advanced, and more capable. With Old Hill, the exceptional team of investors, and upsizing of financial resources that their partnership brings, we can accelerate ByzFunder’s already impressive growth trajectory, expanding our balance sheet to fully service business owners.”
Old Hill Partners Inc. is an alternative asset manager focused on asset-based lending transactions with borrowers seeking $10 to $50 million in financing. The firm structures senior secured debt in the form of term, drawdown, and revolving-to-term facilities of up to four years and loan-to-value ratios in the range of 35% to 85%. Collateral types include pools of loans or leases (specialty finance), receivables, inventory, machinery, and equipment.
“We have been impressed by the quality of ByzFunder’s originations, performance to date, exceptional leadership, disruptive business model, innovative technology, and the overall quality of their operations. We believe the company is well-positioned for further growth, and we are pleased to be part of it,” said Peter Faigl, Senior Portfolio Manager at Old Hill.
About ByzFunder
ByzFunder NY LLC is a leading non-bank financing company that has successfully provided small to medium-sized businesses with fast and convenient financing alternatives since 2018. ByzFunder combines technology and non-traditional credit algorithms to offer attractive pricing and exceptional customer service to a market not captured by traditional banks.
National Funding on Growing its Team to Prepare for the Bull Run of 2022
July 15, 2021
“We’re about people and platforms,” President of National Funding Joe Gaudio said. “PP: People and platforms, not PPP, that’s my little acronym.”
National Funding is back and looking to hire fresh talent, rebuilding their team after the pandemic rolled through the California market.
“Whether it was California or if we resided in another state, it impacted small business owners throughout the country,” Gaudio said. “Small businesses took a big impact. A significant number of customers requested temporary relief loan modifications. And that’s how the PPP program helped bridge that gap for a lot of small business owners, and get them through the pandemic.”
Gaudio said that National Funding was affected like every peer firm was by the pullback, explaining that their normal customer was looking for PPP funding, not a bridge loan. National rolled back their team by about 50%, and rolled back funding for several months. After the worst of it had passed by the end of the summer, National was back, strictly pulling the reigns but still going. Now they are hiring in every department, and Gaudio said nothing is stopping a gigantic 2022 rebound of demand. Benjamin Flowers as CTO and Luca Marseglia to the Data Science Division are just the beginning.
“We’re rescaling, we’re hiring quite a bit this year, and so these two hires are part of our rescaling: rebuilding not only the leadership team, but the rest of the organization,” Gaudio said. “We’re always looking for new high performers and contributors that that fit into our culture. Even pre-pandemic: if you’re an A-player, you’re a high performer, and you can add value, we will take a look at you, we will find room for you.”
National believes the coming year will unleash tremendous pent-up demand, Gaudio said. In the short term, the firm plans to offer intermediate financing to help SMBs handle the bumps on the way. Though there will be some supply chain, labor, and schooling/childcare problems next year, it will still be big, and National has been preparing, working at the office the whole way through.
“That’ll still continue to put somewhat of a cap on the recovery for small business owners, but we expect a big year in 2022,” Gaudio said. “We’ve embraced the hybrid model for certain functions, [but] sales and operations, underwriting: we’re 100% back in the office, and we’ve been like that since last July. It’s important to our culture to be together… I just continue to be very bullish about the future, and I think it’ll be exciting to see the continued evolution of our industry and the platforms.”
Fintech Equality Coalition: meet disparity in minority PPP funding
September 9, 2020
Last month, a group of fintech companies christened the Fintech Equality Coalition. Dedicated to ensuring racial equality is a right extended to everyone, the group pledges to focus on enhancing access to financial services for the underrepresented- particularly within the black community.
The coalition comes at a pivotal time for fintech, currently facing the challenges created by the 2020 pandemic.
In August, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York released a study into the distribution of PPP and how the funds affected black communities. The institution found that the number of small business owners fell by 22% from February to April- the largest drop on record. But the closure of businesses was not felt equally.
“Black businesses experienced the most acute decline, with a 41 percent drop,” The study said. “Latinx business owners fell by 32 percent, and Asian business owners dropped by 26 percent. In contrast, the number of white business owners fell by 17 percent.”
The study also showed that forty percent of Black-owned businesses are concentrated in 30 counties across the country. 19 out of 30 of these counties were the hardest hit by COVID 19 in the nation.
Unfortunately, other studies have shown that the PPP did not accurately get funds to areas hit by the virus. The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) published in July, found that companies more negatively affected by COVID were less likely to be approved.
This may explain why the Small Business Majority study into PPP found that while 63% of Black and Latino small business owners applied, less than two-thirds received funding.
The Fintech Equality Coaltion’s pledge is overall a promise to do more for minority communities, stating:
- Because the Black community is underserved by financial services
- Because there are Black voices and issues in our industry that should be but are not currently amplified
- Because Black employees and Black-owned businesses are underrepresented in the tech community, including at many of our companies
- Because the Black community is underrepresented in leadership roles, including at many of our companies
- Because these promises are meaningless without accountability
The coalition is a pledge to host and sponsor events like forums that feature black speakers. The pledge is also a recognition that the black community has been underserved by financial services in the past, and the signers aim to incorporate more black-owned businesses than before.
Who’s signed
Betterment | Jon Stein, CEO
Blend | Nima Ghamsari, CEO
Carver Edison | Aaron Shapiro, CEO
Cadre | Ryan Williams, CEO
Commerce Ventures | Matt Nichols, CEO
Credit Karma | Ken Lin, CEO
Commonbond | David Klein, CEO
Divvy Homes | Adena Hefets, CEO
Dosh | Ryan Wurech, CEO
Earnest | Susan Ehrlich, CEO
Fabric | Adam Erlebacher, CEO
Freedom Financial Network | Brad Stroh & Andrew Housser, co-CEOs
Guidefi | Charlene Fadirepo, CEO
Halo | Taylor Simpson, CEO
Harness Wealth | David Snider, CEO
Jetty | Luke Cohler, President & Michael Rudoy, CEO
Kard | Ben Mackinnon, CEO
Kindur | Rhian Horgan, CEO
Manifest | Anuraag Tripathi, CEO
Marqeta | Jason Gardner, CEO
Mass Challenge | Siobhan Dullea, CEO
MoneyLion | Dee Choubey, CEO
Monzo | TS Anil, CEO
Nova Credit | Misha Esipov, CEO
Oneblinc | Fabio Torelli, CEO
Oportun | Raul Vazquez, CEO
Petal | Jason Gross, CEO
Renaissance Payments | Joseph Akintolayo, CEO
Rhino | Paraag Sarva, CEO
Scratch | Sameh Elamawy, CEO
Spruce | Patrick Burns, CEO
SoFi | Anthony Noto, CEO
Stash | Brandon Krieg, CEO
Varo | Colin Walsh, CEO
Zest AI | Mike de Vere, CEO
Ocrolus Partners with Kiva to Provide Funding and Publish its Customers’ Stories
February 6, 2020
Ocrolus has announced a partnership with Kiva, the Californian non-profit that provides loans to entrepreneurs in countries underserved by funding options. The deal comes after news of Ocrolus’s partnership with Plaid in December, a venture that helped launch the Ocrolus+ platform.
As part of Kiva’s work to help global small business owners, it publishes the stories of those entrepreneurs, charting how they set up their business and what led them to do it. Ocrolus will follow Kiva’s suit with this partnership, as it plans to publish the stories of its own fintech customers. Aiming to highlight the biographies of those businesses and entrepreneurs that have excelled in the alternative finance and fintech industries, Ocrolus will provide $5,000 for Kiva-backed loans for each story published to its site. If the published business chooses to match this funding, Ocrolus will put forward a further $5,000, bringing the total appropriation for Kiva to $15,000.
Speaking on the partnership, Ocrolus’s COO Vikas Dua told AltFinanceDaily that the inspiration for the deal came after listening to a podcast that featured one of the co-founders of Toms, a company known for its ‘one for one’ policy which sees a pair of shoes being donated to children in need for every pair bought.
“The best part of Kiva is the types of folks you’re helping and the impact you can have. They do a great job of sharing stories of entrepreneurs and folks in need,” Dua said in a call. “Everyone’s incentives are tied together. Overall, we’re just very excited about the mission and very excited not only to tell our customers’ stories, but also to highlight some of the things we’re doing for the folks that Kiva interacts with and they fund. They have some wonderful stories there and we’re excited to share those as well.”
Merchant Growth Partners with goeasy to Provide Funding via Physical Branches
December 11, 2019
This month Merchant Growth, the Vancouver-based alternative finance company, announced its partnership with goeasy Ltd. that will see Merchant Growth’s services being offered in goeasy branches throughout Canada. Beginning with British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan in 2019, Merchant Growth aims to have expanded to the remaining provinces in the first quarter of 2020.
Under the partnership, goeasy will receive compensation from Merchant Growth for all loans made through them while Merchant Growth will provide the capital.
“goeasy is a unique Canadian success and they’ve done that by being disciplined managers, by putting their customers first, and by building a great reputation for themselves in the industry,” said David Gens, Merchant Growth’s President and CEO. “And what we see in them is an ideal partner in that they have the market reach in terms of brand recognition and locations around the country.”
It is the latter of these factors that make the deal stand out. Given the industry’s standard of digital applications, goeasy and Merchant Growth’s return to brick and mortar branches that offer live human managers, clerks, and even physical paper, marks a turn back towards more historical methods of doing business.
Gens commented on this, stating that “there’s something to be said for face-to-face interactions and for that reason I don’t think you’re ever going to go down to having no bank branches … Having a physical location where you can chat with people about your financial needs is something that will always exist as far as I can see.”
How Ireland’s Spark Crowdfunding Got its Start
October 5, 2019
“We’ve not invented anything new,” Chris Burge, CEO of Spark Crowdfunding, tells me. “We saw the rise of crowdfunding in Europe, the states, and the world and we thought, ‘well why doesn’t Ireland have one?’”
We’re in the lobby of a Dublin hotel drinking coffee, right around the corner from Spark’s offices on South William Street. There are at least three other professional meetings going on over variations of hot drinks, the room serving as a haven from the uniquely cold-yet-clammy weather outside.
Burge tells me about how he came to be in alternative finance. An engineer by trade, Burge entered the field after both him and his business partner had found the traditional process of investing to be wanting. “Both of us had invested in the past and had found it cumbersome, long-winded, and expensive,” leading them to explore more accessible, less unwieldy options.
Thus, from such a hole in the market sprung Spark Crowdfunding. Offering equity investment options from as low as €100, Burge sought to streamline the investment by offering it via an online platform from which members can view pitch videos, pitch decks, and detailed documents.
Established in early 2018, the company saw its first big success in August of that year with Fleet, an Irish business that allows cars owners to rent their vehicles to the public from their driveways as well as gas stations. Asking for €275,000, Fleet received this and more, with the total amount invested reaching €385,000.
Allowing for choice when deciding which investors to choose from and how much to take from who, Burge says that flexibility is key to their platform and likens it to Dragons’ Den with much more than five potential investors.
And with bank loans for small businesses becoming increasingly more difficult to access, Spark is positioned similarly to crowdfunding in the US. “Where a company would have previously gone to Allied Irish Bank or Bank of Ireland to borrow €100,000 in order to get their business off the ground, they’re now finding it very difficult and nigh impossible as well to get these loans, so we found that a lot of companies are coming to us to do this.” In addition to such an investment, startups in Ireland may receive extra funding from Enterprise Ireland, a government organization that provides aid to indigenous businesses and will match investments up to a point so long as the company meets certain requirements.
Accompany this with the lack of regulation in the crowdfunding space in Ireland and it would appear that the industry is set to expand.
And on the topic of expansion, Burge is keeping most of his cards to himself. “We know that Ireland is a small country compared to the rest of Europe, or compared to the rest of the world, so there’s a limited amount of stuff that we can do here, and so do we want to grow? Yes. Are we going to go to the states? Probably not. But the rest of Europe? Yes, absolutely. Have we picked out a few countries? Yes, we have.”
