Fraudsters May Leverage Their PPP Approvals to Get Business Loans and MCAs
July 21, 2021
A small business finance underwriter torn between approving or declining an applicant probably should not consider whether or not that business got PPP funding as evidence of the applicant’s legitimacy.
A new alert put forth by Experian claims that “greater than 75% of PPP loans originated by commercial fintech lenders were NOT run through a fraud screening and have a greater probability of containing bad actors.” Experian says that “lenders will need to be more vigilant as they assess these businesses for future offers of credit.”
Experian cites data from the FTC that shows fraud and identify theft have surged since the pandemic started, climbing to even higher levels in 2021 over 2020.
Fraudsters that successfully obtained PPP loans with altered documents, for fake businesses, or on behalf of real businesses using stolen identities, may now use those as leverage to obtain additional money, particularly through sources where the perceived consequences of being found out are low. Non-bank funders and fintech lenders are an attractive target.
Just because an applicant got a PPP loan, underwriters should not assume it has passed a fraud check.
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.”
The Biggest Expansion Period of Our Lifetime? The Non-Bank Finance Industry Says Full Steam Ahead
July 8, 2021
Erez Stamler, Managing Director of Fresh Funding, said that the events of the past year has been an up and down ride, from the initial shutdown shock to rushes in demand. Now that the world is back, those that survived are here to stay and need capital to grow.
“At first the system was in shock, then a phase where we saw a strong spike in submissions [where] the owners were probably looking for some sort of PPP-type solution, and that was not available by us,” Stamler said. “Going into 2022 we believe there’s a lot of demand out there. A lot of businesses have demonstrated growth during Covid and hopefully will continue that into 2022. As far as we can see right now, we’re going strong this year for sure.”
Alex Vasilakos, who tracks online interest in alt finance as the director of marketing for Finance Marketing Group, said there had been an increase in online searches for non-bank financing solutions in the past year because banks weren’t sure how the pandemic would pan out.
“We are back in the office, and we are seeing a large uptick in digital advertising since Covid, and it is continuing to increase,” Vasilakos said in an email. “I am seeing and predicting that people will be leveraging more online sources for financing than they have in the past.”
Amotz Segal, a startup co-founder of Edge Funder, said that if the Covid spikes and black swan events are over, there is no limit to demand, and the hybrid model is here to stay. Edge Funder uses lead generation and AI underwriting to make SMB deal-making easier, Segal said.
“I think nobody’s really bullish enough, I think we’re facing the beginning of the biggest expansion period of our lifetime,” Segal said. “Our team based in New York City will hopefully gradually go back to the office this fall. That being said, I don’t think that we will ever see a one-hundred percent office-space environment. I think what the pandemic did is accelerated a trend that already began of people working from home, working remotely, and not having to attend the office daily.”
Segal has grounds to be bullish: Edge was just acquired by Yes Lender after only a year of development.
James Lee, CEO and co-founder of Julius Technologies, said that people had definitely gotten a feel for remote work, but virtual does not replace in-person communication. Julius is a startup that creates cost-effective back-end infrastructure for fintechs, building efficient data analytics for credit underwriting.
“We will see some shift. People got a taste of what it’s like to work from home; the hybrid model is a possibility in the short term,” Lee said. “In the long term we’ll see if Covid comes back in the fall with people working closely together. Hybrid works, but face-to-face time is irreplaceable and very difficult to replace in a virtual sense.”
Lee said that in-person interaction is vital for networking, mentorship, and even random, spur-of-the-moment conversations that bring a team together. Lee recently completed the Techstars incubator program fully virtually. Everything but launch day was virtual in a process that is usually hands-on.
Some firms are back in the office full time. Samuel Yakubov, director of ISO Relations at Maverick Funding, said he was already working in the office in June and had high hopes for 2022.
Tyler Deters, president and CEO of Paradigm Equipment Finance in Utah, said his business was back indoors and on track.
“We are optimistic for the future,” Deters said. “Our staff has all returned to the office, and we are full steam ahead.”
Joe Lustberg from Upwise Capital couldn’t agree more and said his team had been working in the office through the shutdown. Lustberg is confident that the post-pandemic world will be great for business, and Upwise has been doing well servicing PPP, equipment and trucking financing, and niche cannabis industry funding. Upwise also took advantage of the dip in real estate to snag an office in Manhattan and “never looked back.”
“We made sure that everybody was vaccinated, and before the vaccination was available we were still in the office. We were getting tested monthly and my guys had the option to work from home,” Lustberg said. “To be honest, most of them want to be around the company culture, the show floor. It’s much easier for them to walk in my office and ask me a question than FaceTime. It’s good New York is coming back.”
Six or seven months ago, it might have been a market full of PPP loans, but MCA is coming back strong, Lustberg said. With government funds exhausted, he said even firms that had never taken an advance before are looking for funding.
Steven Hunter would agree the industry is back. As a consultant that works best coaching underwriting teams in person, however, the work from the home model has been a drag. He said hybrid may work for relaxed work environments, but to get ahead, in-person is the way it has always been and always will be.
“I think the fact that we have proven we can, in most situations, work remotely has made [funding shops] think: ‘well you know airfare, hotel, meals and Ubers.. you know it adds up.’ So, I think I think a lot of people are going to be cost-sensitive to travel in a way they weren’t before,” Hunter said. “But if you want to make it in this industry as a startup funder, and you want ISOs to give you deals, you cannot do that by the phone and you cannot do that via Zoom call. You have got to show respect for the good shops.”
Hunter said in the actual MCA business, you don’t win deals by calling them 100 times. You get deals from the best of the best by selling face to face.
“You get deals from [top brokers] by putting your ass on a plane and flying into LaGuardia, taking a cab to their office and camping out there for three days, and talking to them looking them in the eye and saying this is what I’m going to do for you,” Hunter said. “Sales is always going to be boots on the ground. You got to put people out there.”
The Small Business Finance Industry is BACK
June 21, 2021
The industry is back. I say this while sitting in a Miami hotel, my third such trip to Florida since becoming fully vaccinated against Covid in May.
There’s a lot of action going on. I’ve sat down in multiple broker shops in both New York and Florida and the phones are ringing off the hook.
The demographic of the average customer in the post-covid recovery seems to vary. Some say the credit quality has gotten better, others have said it’s worse. Some merchants have become used to forgiveable loans and low APR financing while others appear willing to take capital at any price just to keep up with the pace of their growth. It’s one of those things where everyone is just trying to adjust to the new normal, even if there’s little consensus as to what that is.
In New York City, the return of packed bars and overflowing restaurants stands in stark contrast to the rows of abandoned stores and For Lease signs that dot the landscapes around them. And yet if one looks past all that, the only reminder that Covid was ever even there is the requirement that one still wear a mask on the subway even if they’re vaccinated.
In Florida, it’s the opposite. I recently got yelled at by a bus driver for wearing a mask in the first place.
The broker shops I’ve visited still had office space that were filled with teams that were more than happy to be occupying them in person. But at the same time, the industry has become extremely popular with the traditional work-from-home crowd.
Leo Kanell’s 7-day marathon challenge on facebook draws in more eager industry participants than I would’ve ever thought possible, an accomplishment I know to be true because I dropped in on him unannounced late one friday night while he was live.
Similarly, Oz Konar, who I did a livestream interview with in person, has trained more than 3,000 brokers in the industry, many who work for themselves from home.
We’ve also been very busy in the last couple months and have met a lot of brand new entrants on both the funding and broker side.
All this activity is setting the stage well for Broker Fair 2021 on December 6 in New York City. It is perfectly timed to discuss the new disclosure law that goes into effect in New York on Jan 1, 2022, one that is so consequential that at least one company has relocated to New Jersey.
What a time to be in the industry!
Thrasio Acquires Yardline to Offer E-Commerce Funding
June 16, 2021
Amazon merchant conglomerate Thrasio bought Yardline to incorporate e-commerce finance into the product offering. Thrasio has been active with Yardline since the firm’s initial backing of the company, and is now making Yardline a wholly owned subsidiary.
Yardline Chief Revenue Officer Seth Broman said that historically, e-commerce has been risky with no barrier to entry like traditional brick and mortar shops. Broman added that online stores used to be for supplements, but through Amazon’s third-party marketplace and Shopify’s help, scaling a quality business has become possible.
“Through COVID, the script was flipped,” Broman wrote in a statement. “E-commerce businesses became less risky, and brick-and-mortar businesses suffered the most. It’s also a much smaller universe and harder to target than a brick-and-mortar business.”
Thrasio boasts it is the largest acquirer of Amazon brands globally, and co-founder and co-CEO Carlos Cashman said 40% of brands they approach end up selling. Now, they can help scale those brands.
“Yardline will be an asset in creating more opportunities for these entrepreneurs and offering more sophisticated avenues for growth,” Cashman said in a statement. “They’ve been doing something different in the space—their strategic approach to providing embedded capital across e-commerce marketplaces is unique—and we’re eager to have their technology and proficiency on our team.”
Tomo Matsuo, president of Yardline, will be joining Thrasio’s senior leadership team. “It’s conceivable that every eCommerce-related platform will have FinTech capabilities in the future,” he said in a statement. “And our acquisition by Thrasio demonstrates that.”
After Funding Millions, Alt Financier Hosts Funding CEO Challenge
May 25, 2021
Leo Kanell, a funder from Utah, runs the 7 Day Funding CEO Challenge, a seven-day marathon video livestream of inspirational and educational funding content.
“So how [the challenge works] is basically, we’re looking for communities, and we’re building a community,” Kanell said. “Our focus is how can we help existing loan brokers, and then how can we help people who are looking for an additional stream of income that they can do from home obviously with the pandemic.”
All the action happens in a livestream on Facebook.
“Everybody kept asking ‘we need some training,’ so we built out a custom website for them so that they can build their funding empire from home,” Kanell said.
Many of the brand new market entrants are sales-minded individuals that are interested in working from home. Kanell has a sales mind and a small business funding background. He grew up in a family of nine from a small town in Utah with a population of only 3,000. He knew he would be a salesman when he turned a summer painting business internship into a $60,000 operation. After college, he tried his hand at real estate, but after 2008 he started looking for another industry.
“I started and went ‘Well, I’m gonna need money for that business,'” Kanell said. “I started looking at the different options to get financing for that next business venture, and it was very difficult, especially for a new business, especially if you’re a pre-revenue business or you don’t have a lot of sales and or collateral.”
He realized SMB funding was the business he should be getting into so he jumped in with both feet. From there he veered into a business education program alongside products like business credit cards.
He soon said that he was doing well, but he heard the funding industry calling his name. “Everything pulled me back into funding,” Kanell said and he decided to combine his education system toward loan broker training programs. He said many brokers don’t realize startups and pre-revenue bushiness can qualify for 0% for up to 15 months.
Now, Kanell hosts an industry podcast that features financial industry guests, and alongside funding, he looks forward to building a community of broker and funder education services.
“We’re going to not only get you the best funding guaranteed, but we’re going to educate you and empower you along the way,” Kanell said. “They can work as direct funders and keep 100% of the commission, and that if they want us to do the work you know, we can do splits.”
Good Funding Announces Closing of up to $30 Million Credit Facility
May 19, 2021
Transaction Represents Company’s Inaugural Institutional Financing
TUSTIN, Calif., May 19, 2021 – Good Funding, LLC (“Good Funding”), a recently-launched small business finance company, has closed on a $20.0 million senior revolving credit facility with a U.S.-based, credit focused asset manager. The agreement includes an accordion feature with the option to increase the credit facility to $30.0 million. The transaction represents Good Funding’s inaugural institutional financing. Proceeds will be used to increase the Company’s funding capabilities and execute its strategic growth plan.
“We are thrilled to have closed on this first round of institutional financing,” said Jason Osiecki, Co-Founder and President of Good Funding. “This credit facility will allow us to accelerate the growth of our funding platform, expand our team, and ultimately empower even more small businesses to move forward.”
“With less than a year in business, in the midst of a pandemic that is still negatively impacting America’s small businesses, we view this investment as a strong endorsement of what Good Funding can accomplish,” said Co-Founder and CEO of Good Funding Ben Gold. “Closing on this credit facility validates our mission to transform the way small businesses access the capital they need to grow and thrive. We cannot wait to put this investment into action.”
Brean Capital, LLC served as the Company’s exclusive Advisor and Placement Agent in connection with this transaction.
About Good Funding, LLC
Founded in 2020, Good Funding is a privately-held financial services firm that provides alternative funding resources to America’s small businesses. Our products are designed for business owners who cannot access working capital through traditional methods, or simply need funding with a rapid-fire turnaround. Good Funding allows entrepreneurs, start-ups and established businesses to build self-reliance and a brighter financial future.
Media contact:
Jenny Alonzo
VP, Marketing
714.384.7189
jalonzo@goodfunding.com
Forward Financing Wins Customer Service Award, Originates $165M in 2020
May 10, 2021
Forward Financing won a Silver Stevie Award for the Best Customer Service Department of the Annual American Business Awards, for their work helping clients during the pandemic year. The firm originated a total of $165,826,203 across 6,142 advances in 2020, a representative said.
“We are truly honored to receive recognition for the fantastic job our Account Servicing team does every day to help our small business customers,” Justin Bakes, co-founder and CEO, said. “Particularly in 2020, that help was needed more than ever before to help small business owners get through the most difficult months of the pandemic.”
The firm said that in 2020, thousands of customers reached out to the Account Servicing Department (ASD) to request payment relief from the pandemic shutdown. The company trained 18 team members from different departments to join ASD, nearly tripling the size of the team, the firm said.
Forward competed with more than 3,800 nominations submitted this year for organizations across the US. Since 2012, Forward Financing has provided more than $1 billion in funding to more than 26,000 small businesses.
