Staying Vigilant in the Funding Business
April 15, 2024There’s a lot of funny business going on these days, so here are some things for you and your merchants to look out for:
The LOC Bait and Switch
A scammer offers the customer an impossibly good deal on a line of credit that is contingent on first entering into some other product. After the customer enters into the first transaction, the LOC offer and the scammer disappear. If your customer is susceptible to falling for something like this, make sure to advise them ahead of time accordingly.
The Mystery Funder
Despite a customer claiming to work exclusively with you as a broker, at some point a third party mysteriously enters the process and offers a separate deal to them to compete with you. Although there could be many reasons for this happening both legitimate or otherwise, including the customer not being completely forthright about exclusivity, you should communicate with your customer beforehand about who or who not to expect a communication from. Also, there are methods you can use to mitigate this by plugging up common attack vectors like an email address or phone # on a submitted application. Allow an attorney to guide you on how to do this most effectively and legally.
The Debt Advisor
Beware the debt advisor who claims they are there to help a merchant reduce the obligations of their loans or advances as many do not understand the contracts they claim to advise on. Because of this, they can potentially push a customer into a much worse situation than they otherwise might’ve been in. A merchant’s best bet is to communicate directly with the source of capital on their own. Oftentimes a contract spells out the proper protocol to follow depending on what the situation is.
Pac-man
They got hot full packs for sale including bank statements, social security #s, and other data ready to send your way! Before engaging in any such transaction, please consult with an attorney about the potential implications of doing something like this. Same goes for you if you were thinking about “selling your declines.”
The Ghost
Brokers often complain about customers falling for obvious scams over the phone, including the classic LOC scam, however, brokers can be just as susceptible to the same tactics. Before working with any lender or funder, you should conduct a full range of due diligence on them. This includes investigating their precise address, who the owner is, what their background is, what their ISO contract says, what their merchant contract says, etc. Too often brokers are drawn in by a commission they believe they stand to make and a smooth talking biz dev rep they talked to on the phone and skip over all the fundamentals. If the funder turns out to be a scammer, then you’ve potentially placed customers with that scammer and put yourself doubly at risk. A commission isn’t worth waiving due diligence. The stakes are too high for this industry.
BusinessFunding.com Sells for $44,000
February 12, 2024
The world of domain name investors called out a big sale that took place on GoDaddy over the weekend. The domain is businessfunding.com and it reportedly sold for $44,000, according to Namebio which tracks sales when data is available. The whois information does not reveal who the buyer is at this time.
Other potentially high value domain names in the small business finance industry include businessloans.com and smallbusinessloans.com, each of which are standalone businesses.
Meanwhile:
loans.com was sold for $3 million 24 years ago and today redirects to the homepage of Bank of America.
businesslenders.com belongs to Business Lenders, LLC, which has since ceased its lending operations.
businesslending.com redirects to a bio page for a big real estate broker.
merchantloan.com redirects to Circadian Funding’s website.
revenuebasedfinancing.com redirects to Lighter Capital’s website.
lenders.com is a page that hasn’t been set up yet.
lending.com doesn’t resolve.
How important is a domain name to a business? Important enough that a business can hardly afford to lose one. And did you hear about the first domain name to ever be used as loan collateral over the blockchain? It just happened recently!
Expansion Capital Group Announces $1 Billion Funding Milestone — Supporting the Expansion of U.S. Small Businesses
December 13, 2023
L-R: Herk Christie, Chief Operating Officer; Brittney Newell, Chief Financial Officer; Vincent Ney, Chief Executive Officer;
Tim Mages, Chief Strategy Officer; Mike Beattie, Chief Technology Officer
Photo Credit: Reistroffer Design
SIOUX FALLS, SOUTH DAKOTA—Expansion Capital Group, LLC (“ECG”) is pleased to announce its billionth dollar in funding, reinforcing its mission to support the “Expansion” of America’s Small Businesses with simple and efficient capital. Since inception in 2013, ECG has provided services to over 20,000 small businesses across multiple industries nationwide. ECG’s core solution, a six to 11 month working capital product, meets the needs of small business owners that are not in a position to wait for a traditional bank loan.
Tim Mages, Chief Strategy Officer of ECG said, “The ECG team is proud of its efforts to fulfill the capital needs of small business owners. Capital challenges have been magnified since COVID and the recent muted lending environment by regional and community banks. During the last three years, inflationary pressures have negatively impacted many hardworking small business owners. ECG has continued to be a reliable partner and a key resource as business owners navigate these headwinds.”
He continued, “In the last two years, we’ve seen accelerated growth of our platform. This growth is being driven by two key factors. First, our industry-leading Partner Portal is designed to create a transparent and seamless process for our referral partners. Second, investments in new technology and data sources have positioned ECG to provide underwritten approvals in less than an hour. These innovations would not have been possible without the trust of our valued customers and dedication of our 85+ team members.”
ECG’s Chief Operating Officer, Herk Christie, said, “Paramount to our success is the support from our referral partners. Since inception, we’ve also seen over one million applications from small business owners. Our financing alternatives provide business owners with more options and availability, so they can successfully execute their business objectives.”
As an on-balance sheet working capital provider, ECG is committed to providing customized solutions for small businesses. ECG works directly with small business owners and with hundreds of referral partners who are trying to meet their clients needs. ECG utilizes proprietary data, analytics, and systems to provide access and capital in a timely manner. Its robust underwriting models and flexible Partner Portal platform allows business owners to compare options and select a product that fits their needs.
Brittney Newell, ECG’s Chief Financial Officer added, “We hope to continue this growth in the coming years and appreciate the support of our long-time capital provider Bastion Management. As many market participants have tightened lending standards throughout 2023, ECG is committed to continuing to meet the increased demand for our services and offerings.”
PR Contact: tamara@tamaraedwards.co
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Expansion Capital Group is headquartered in Sioux Falls, SD and operates as a technology-driven specialty lender harnessing data and analytics to offer tailor-made solutions for small business enterprises. The company primarily serves small businesses across the United States with annual revenues of less than $10 million. For more information, please visit www.ecg.com and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.
Recent ECG News
Sioux Falls Business Journal: Fast but careful money: Sioux Falls firm offers new kind of capital
Inc. 5000: Financial services firm partnering with small business owners to provide working capital solutions with speed, simplicity and service.
Small Business Funding Companies Showcase Phenomenal Growth
August 15, 2023The annual Inc 5000 list is out again and with it some big reveals about who in the industry is taking off like a rocket. We’ve pulled out some of the relevant names for you below!
#30 – B2 Capital Solution Provider – Miami, FL – 10,446% growth over 3 years
#38 – Novo – Miami, FL – 9,906%
#76 – Byzfunder – New York, NY – 6,228%
#89 – Valiant Capital – Houston, TX – 5,223%
#157 – Ampla – New York, NY – 3,404%
#180 – LeasePoint Funding Group – Austin, TX – 2920%
#192 – Backd – Austin, TX – 2,819%
#269 – Percent – New York, NY – 2,087%
#1383 – eCapital – Aventura, FL – 422%
#1617 – North Mill Equipment Finance – Norwalk, CT- 354%
#1622 – Oakmont Capital Services – Westchester, PA – 346%
#1837 – Nav Technologies – Draper, UT – 305%
#1942 – Crestmont Capital – Irvine, CA – 289%
#2026 – 7 Figures Funding – American Fork, UT – 277%
#2593 – SBG Funding – New York, NY – 210%
#2929 – 1West – New York, NY – 179%
#2947 – ApplePie Capital – San Francisco, CA – 178%
#3145 – Channel – Minnetonka, MN – 164%
#3737 – Direct Funding Now, Irvine, CA – 128%
#4085 – Smarter Equipment Finance – Las Vegas, NV – 111%
#4094 – iAdvance Now. – Uniondale, NY – 111%
#4651 – Expansion Capital Group – Sioux Falls, SD – 87%
If we missed you, let us know, email info@debanked.com.
Turning Businesses into Funding Warriors
July 27, 2022
The downside to offering any small business a loan to grow is that they might not necessarily know how to do the growing part. And so for years, that’s what a Tempe, AZ headquartered company called Business Warrior had been focused on, helping small businesses grow and become more profitable. If businesses needed funding, Business Warrior could certainly provide that too, but the key was in maximizing the value of that.
It all seemed a swell fit until the company became further intrigued by the value proposition of one of its vendors, Alchemy, an “embedded finance” company headquartered in nearby California. AltFinanceDaily had interviewed Alchemy CEO Timothy Li via Zoom back in August 2020 and the tech company had only grown since then. After reconnecting in April of this year, Li described Alchemy as the “Salesforce of embedded finance.”
Embedded Finance sounds altogether buzz-wordy, but Business Warrior smelled opportunity. In June, Business Warrior announced that it had acquired Alchemy. Since then, Alchemy’s Li has become a warrior and he is working hard to roll out Business Warrior’s next generation of products.
Among the first on the horizon is an Alchemy specialty, giving small businesses the tools to become lenders themselves. It sounds like Buy-Now-Pay-Later, and to an extent it is, but the difference is that a furniture store, doctor’s office, or repair shop would be the one extending the credit, not a faceless third party on Wall Street hoping to win big.
Li explained the advantage of this by using a doctor’s office as an example. “So the creditors, the banks, don’t understand [the customer] just from reading the credit report, but the doctors understand them, they’re local people, they might have seen this patient before,” said Li. “Now [that patient] wants to do a $10,000 procedure and nobody under the sun will underwrite them.” When this happens, the doctor’s office might try to arrange some type of private financing arrangement, “but they don’t have the software to do it,” Li stated.
Business Warrior’s software solves this. The platform will be free for the business and Business Warrior will process the customer payments, which is where they’ll earn their revenue, on transactions fees.
In one respect it reduces two risks for the business: (a) A third party BNPL lender dictating future approval, supply, and cost of financing, and (b) credit card companies cutting the lines of their customers that they would otherwise normally use to pay for services. The downside, so to speak, is that the business itself is tasked with being its customers’ creditor.
But ultimately, just like BNPL, such a service is likely to lead to a boost in sales, which is what Business Warrior’s mission had always been from the start.
“This tool is a tool for the small business to do more business,” Li said.
The Alchemy name will remain as far as Li knows, because they still have a lot of customers using its original products. Day to day now, Alchemy is also working with Helix House, an online marketing company that Business Warrior also acquired. They’re all leveraging each other’s resources.
Li concluded the interview by sharing a recent real world experience, he himself going to a dental office to get some work done.
“They have every single imaginable technology, schedule appointments, all the tech,” he said. “They don’t have something that manages payments. It’s either a credit card, cash, or it’s nothing.”
Referring to the financing capabilities that Business Warrior can bring to the table in those very circumstances, “I feel like it should have been there already.”
The Real Small Business Funding Demand Has Yet to Kick In
May 26, 2022
Now that small and medium sized businesses received crucial PPP and EIDL funding during the COVID-19 pandemic, they have become more familiar with other options to obtain capital.
“…they’re learning that they can borrow money based on their revenue, not based on their credit and assets,” stated Sean Feighan, Co-founder and President of Cash Buoy. Feighan explained that the exercise of obtaining capital during Covid to stay in business created or further developed an appetite for small businesses to borrow money in general.
As these businesses are still utilizing the remaining government aid, the real demand has not truly begun, according to Dylan J Howell, CEO of Liquidibee. “…we have yet to see the real big demand that’s about to kick in, in my opinion, over the next six to twelve months, I believe that a lot more demand will come in,” Howell said. “A lot of companies received a good injection of government stimulus. And they’ve enjoyed that over the last year, year and a half. And as that comes to an end, companies are always looking for additional capital, whether it be to grow or foster future growth of their company.”
“I think we’re beginning now to see a new phase within small business,” said Avi Wernick, VP of Partnerships at FinTap. Because of the money that’s still lingering from the stimulus efforts, he thinks that alternative finance companies will soon see more demand in the coming months. But at the same time, those finance companies will have to determine if they’re even a good fit for their products. “I think some businesses will be more adversely affected. I think it depends a lot on the nature of the business owners, you know there are better business owners out there that are able to manage [their] finances more responsibly, and there are others that are kind of just more reactive.”
Erez Stamler, CEO and Managing Director of Fresh Funding, echoed a similar sentiment. He said that increased risk factors of a business coming out of Covid can make it harder to get them approved. Besides, a business now predisposed to forgivable funding or ultra long terms at very low interest may not necessarily demand other products in the market.
“So you will see demand, but you might not see increased amount of views or volume of deals, because you can’t replace SBA loans with MCA,” Stamler said.
Shopify Capital Originated $346.7M in Business Funding in Q1
May 8, 2022
Shopify Capital originated $346.7M in MCAs and business loans in Q1, the company announced. That included merchants in the US, UK, and Canada. Though it was a 12% increase over the same period last year, the figure puts them virtually on par with originations in 2021 if the following three quarters hold steady.
Shopify was one of the only online lenders whose origination volume substantially increased during covid. Most experienced significant drops but have since dramatically recovered.
“The hundreds of thousands of businesses that shifted their business to Shopify during the pandemic and stayed with us since can now take advantage of our powerful retail point-of-sale offering for a unified view of their sales online and offline,” said Shopify CEO Harley Finkelstein during the Q1 earnings call. “Shopify has been developing the world’s best point-of-sale retail software for years, and it’s now at the point where all merchants who came to Shopify during the pandemic can leverage it.”
Seacoast Business Funding Provides $14,500,000 in New Working Capital Lines
March 7, 2022
Boynton Beach, FL – March 4, 2022 – Seacoast Business Funding, secured $14,500,000 in accounts receivable facilities. The transactions added three new companies to the Seacoast portfolio.
- A $10,000,000 asset-based facility with A/R and Inventory, was provided to a sports medicine and therapeutic product manufacturer located in the Southeast. The Company will utilize the proceeds to increase its product line to existing retail supply chain as well as expand into medical supplies.
- A $2,500,000 factoring facility for an electrical supply distributor located in the Southeast. Increased demand as well as shipping delays has resulted in the need for an increased working capital line.
- A $2,000,000 ledgered invoice LOC for a software & hardware manufacturer. The Company was seeking to establish a reliable working capital partner to support demand and the expansion of a business line.
President of Seacoast Business Funding, Jay Atkins, commented, “We understand the financial needs affecting manufacturing and distribution industries in the current environment, and our ability to move quickly ensures our clients the structure needed to continue without disruption. We met the needs of our clients by providing flexible and sustainable solutions, placing them in a position to maintain momentum and mitigate operational instability.”
About Seacoast Business Funding
Seacoast Business Funding provides customized and timely working capital financing solutions to small and middle-market companies engaged mainly in business services, distribution, manufacturing and staffing with annual sales ranging from $1 million to $200 million. Credit facilities are in the form of Factoring, Invoice Purchasing or Asset-Based agreements. Seacoast Business Funding is a Division of Seacoast National Bank. Member FDIC. For more information visit SeacoastBusinessFunding.com.
Media Contact:
Brooke Ruben
Seacoast Business Funding
561.623.1871
Brooke.Ruben@seacoastbf.com
