Spotlight on AltFinanceDaily CONNECT Toronto
July 30, 2019
As the heat of the Toronto sun split the stones outside, the crowd inside the Omni King Edward’s seventeenth-floor Crystal Ballroom mingled and munched as part of AltFinanceDaily’s most recent CONNECT event.
The first of its kind to be held in Toronto, the CONNECT series are half-day events that take place in both San Diego and Miami as well. Despite not being as established as the latter two, Toronto proved just as eventful, with a variety of speakers and topics broached, as well as a host of attendees from differing backgrounds making an appearance. It was par for the course for an inaugural AltFinanceDaily show with the attendance figures being reminiscent of AltFinanceDaily’s first ever event in the USA, a market that’s 10x the size.
The day was kicked off by entrepreneur, a dragon on the Canadian Dragons’ Den series, and co-founder of Clearbanc, Michele Romanow, whose anecdotes detailed the adventures that accompany the beginning of a startup. Regaling the audience with the story of Evandale Caviar, Romanow began with telling the room of a post-college venture that saw her working tooth and nail to secure a fishing license, studying YouTube fish gutting tutorials that were exclusively in Russian, and getting her hands dirty with the other co-founders when the time came to put their time spent online to use.
But it wasn’t all blood and glory for Romanow, as the tale shifted from one of youthful expansion to one of reflection and acceptance of the unknown. Speaking on the effect of tech giants in various fields, Romanow explained that “we have no idea of how these industries will shape out.” The likes of Uber and AirBnb never planned change the world, just to change a product and thus solve a problem, and their meteoric rises are unpredictable as a result. Iteration, rather than innovation, is what drives a company forward according to Romanow.
And this sentiment was brought further along with the following panel, which featured Vlad Sherbatov of Smarter Loans, Paul Pitcher of SharpShooter Funding, and SEO expert Paul Teitelman, speaking on the trials and novelties of the sales and marketing scene. Offering wisdom on various aspects of the field, the three men covered the need to go beyond the traditional forms of advertising, instead looking outward towards unorthodox methods of marketing; the hardships that come with the grind of a sales job; and the role that SEO can play when raising public awareness of your company; respectively.
“It’s a matter of spreading the word,” one conference goer noted when asked about the sales panel afterwards. “Businesses have to know who we are, and we’re working on that.”
Similarly, Martin Fingerhut and Adam Atlas discussed the existing legal topics of note to Canadian alternative financing companies, as well as those incoming rulings that may be worth knowing about. Covering both the English-speaking provinces and Quebec, the duo gave a comprehensive crash course on the legal landscape of the industry, highlighting laws unique to the regions. Aaron Iannello of Top Funding considered the talk to be particularly engaging, commending it for relaying information that might otherwise be unknown to American companies.
Following this, Kevin Clark, President of Lendified, took to the stage to talk about the importance of the Canadian Lenders Association (CLA). Saying that in the absence of a regulatory body, the CLA seeks to offer guidance to those companies who are looking for it. Clark asserted that “it’s a good thing for our industry to have oversight from a regularly body,” and that he looks forward to the day when one is established.
And before wrapping up the speakers for the day, Clark was joined by IOU Financial’s President, Robert Gloer, to discuss contemporary risk management. Covering everything from the next recession to the emergence of AI, the pair, which accumulatively have been in the industry for decades, offered knowledge learnt from years of experience in both the pre- and post-crash eras.
And the prophesizing of what will be the next big episode to shake the industry continued beyond the day’s scheduled agenda as many attendees continued on well into the evening at smaller networking functions offsite.
As the sun started to touchdown on the tips of Toronto’s skyscrapers, the salvo of excited conversation briefly harmonized to produce a singular axiom, that there was an abundance of opportunity in Canada.
OnDeck Taps Bank Veteran to Lead ODX Sales and Strategy
July 23, 2019
NEW YORK – OnDeck® (NYSE: ONDK), the leader in online lending for small business, today announced the appointment of Lonnie Hayes as the Head of Sales and Strategy for ODX, a wholly owned subsidiary of OnDeck that assists banks with streamlining and digitizing small business credit origination.
Mr. Hayes brings more than thirty years of experience to his new role. He most recently served as Executive Vice President of Small Business for BBVA USA, where he established the organization’s U.S. strategy to serve businesses with less than $10 million in annual revenues. At BBVA USA, Mr. Hayes oversaw product development, digital and sales operations, as well as leading the bank’s nationally recognized Small Business Administration (SBA) lending unit.
“Lonnie’s proven track record building and managing high-growth sales organizations and programs will be crucial as we continue to address the market from banks seeking enhanced digital lending capabilities,” said Brian Geary, President, ODX. “Lonnie will be a tremendous asset to our team as we engage financial institutions to help them accelerate their ability to serve small businesses.”
“I am excited to join ODX, the pioneer in digitizing and speeding the online lending experience for banks,” said Lonnie Hayes, Head of Sales and Strategy, ODX. “I hope to bring a banker’s perspective to our partnership efforts and look forward to collaborating with bank colleagues old and new, to strengthen the economics of small business lending while dramatically improving the customer experience for borrowers.”
ODX operates as a subsidiary of OnDeck and offers a combination of software, analytic insights, and professional services to help banks reinvent their small business lending process. At the core of the ODX solution is a modular, scalable, and reliable SaaS platform that allows banks to either create a fully end-to-end digital experience for their customers or to select certain components for specific product functions. An ODX-powered bank platform experience can enable a small business customer to apply for financing from their bank online, receive immediate decisions, and obtain funding in as fast as 24 hours.
About OnDeck
OnDeck (NYSE: ONDK) is the proven leader in transparent and responsible online lending to small business. Founded in 2006, the company pioneered the use of data analytics and digital technology to make real-time lending decisions and deliver capital rapidly to small businesses online. Today, OnDeck offers a wide range of term loans and lines of credit customized for the needs of small business owners. The company also offers bank clients a comprehensive technology and services platform that facilitates online lending to small business customers through ODX, a wholly-owned subsidiary. OnDeck has provided over $11 billion in loans to customers in 700 different industries across the United States, Canada and Australia. The company has an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau and is rated 5 stars by Trustpilot. For more information, visit www.ondeck.com.
Media Contact:
Jim Larkin
OnDeck
jlarkin@ondeck.com
P: 203-526-7457
Investor Contact:
Stephen Klimas
OnDeck
sklimas@ondeck.com
P: (646) 668-3582
OnDeck, the OnDeck logo, OnDeck Score and OnDeck Marketplace are trademarks of On Deck Capital, Inc.
Become: The Who, What, and Why of a Rebrand
July 23, 2019Last week Lending Express rebranded to Become. Founded in 2016, the company, which educates businesses looking for loans on how to appear more attractive to funders, was spearheaded by CEO Eden Amirav in Australia originally, with an eventual expansion to the US. Three years in, the company has over 50 lending partners across its two markets, a record of having facilitated over $150 million in funding, and more than 150,000 members on their platforms. As indicators of progress go, these are far from undesirable. So, when things were going so well, what led Amirav to decide to rebrand?
In short, the company had evolved into something different from what it was in 2016, and its name, logo, and stylized website fonts had to reflect that. Thus, Lending Express became Become.
Gone are many of the aesthetic features of Lending Express, replaced with fresher counterparts, but beyond the brand, much of the company has remained. Amirav, the ex-pro gamer who was national champion of Israel in Warcraft 3 when he was a teenager, is still around; their AI-powered funding odds calculator, LendingScore, continues to be used; and their offices in both the US and Israel remain open.
Rather than being hoarded remnants of times past, what Become has brought with it from Lending Express were deemed necessary by Amirav when discussing what was required to execute the rebrand. Explaining that before planning for the future of the rebrand even begun, Lending Express worked for months to comprehensively take stock of itself, and Amirav noted that all hands were needed and the entire company pitched in. Whether it was ensuring that URL links which once directed people to Lending Express now went to Become, or the drafting up of the new name, much of the work that went into the business’s metamorphosis came from within the company. Of course, Become specializes is helping small businesses get approved for loans, so not everything could be done by themselves, which is where a marketing firm came in to aid them with the crafting of the company’s new image.
As to the motives of the rebrand, the brief explanation given above doesn’t cut it. A blog post on Become’s website explains the origins of both names. With Lending Express having a ‘do-what-it-say-on-the-tin’ aspect to it, Become is much more abstract in how it reflects the company. Noting that Become originates from both within the company and without, Amirav explains the name owes itself to Lending Express’s development into a “no human-touch, all-tech based” company, following LendingScore’s creation; as well as the business’s ability to help its customers achieve their goals, enabling them to become what they wish.
Rebranding comes at a massive financial cost, with no guarantee of an immediate large payout upon launch, but as Amirav asserted, the switch to Become was necessary in his long-term plan for the company, as the “stress [of the rebrand] is offset by the goal of where they want to go.” “We’re well equipped with people, resources, and vision,” Amirav went on to say, and as well as this, he believes in the importance of a strong brand, regardless of industry, claiming that it “becomes a power to work with.”
And with their new logo and four-tone color palette sure to catch eyes, perhaps Amirav’s gamble will pay off. For now, he’s content with his rebrand going public, the continued business of Become, and the “shareholders [being] happy.”
CAN Capital Hired a New CFO: Here’s His Take On The Company
July 23, 2019
The last 12 months have seen plenty of developments within the offices of CAN Capital. September witnessed the announcement of a new credit facility of $287 million with Varadero Capital. January brought news of the hiring of a new CEO. And now, completing the hat trick is CAN’s employment of John McNeill as its CFO.
Coming from years of experience in finance, with firms such as Ocwen Financial and Zume, McNeill is stepping into his role with an optimism normally reserved for those at the offset of a new business. Saying that due to recent restructuring, new hirings, and CAN’s re-evaluation of its position in the market over the previous two years, McNeill believes that the company “feels like it’s a nimble startup.” Albeit a startup that has been in the industry for over 20 years.
Founded in 1998 by a small business owner who struggled to be approved for a business loan, CAN has been cemented as a legacy figure within the alternative finance industry. Having persevered through the ’08 crash as well as other economic hiccups over the past two decades, CAN is uniquely positioned in that it has 20 years worth of experience and data, not to mention the personnel who have stuck around to become veterans as well, to guide them through the current moment of market saturation.
And it is the synergy between these two aspects of CAN, the new and the old, that initially drew McNeill to the company. The opportunity to work alongside people who have decades of experience in the market, as well as those who have only been there a few months longer than himself, led McNeill to view CAN as an anomaly, where it’s “like being the new guy, but with all of the tools of historical experience.”
This freshness tempered by lessons learned in the past is also attributed by McNeill to CAN’s CEO, Edward J. Siciliano, who’s worked in commercial financing, sales, marketing, and operations for over 30 years; and who has aimed to expand operations, both technologically and geographically, since his taking up of the role.
McNeill believes that there continues to be plenty of the market left to expand into, saying there’s “still a lot of opportunities to make money and to help secure funding for businesses across America.”
Is The COJ Law In Effect Yet?
July 18, 2019
The COJ bill passed, but where’s the governor’s signature?
When the legislature passes a bill in New York State, there’s a documented procedure on the Senate’s website for how it becomes law. If the legislature is still in session, the governor has only 10 days to sign it. If the passed bill is sent to the governor when the legislature is out of session, the governor has 30 days to sign it.
Caught in this process is S6395, the now-infamous COJ bill that prohibits the filing of a COJ in New York State against a non-New York resident. Its passage on the 18th of June and the closing of the legislative session theoretically put the bill on the 30-day track for the governor’s signature.
Indeed, the Farm Laborers Fair Labor Practices Act, which was debated on the Senate floor for several hours during the closing few days, has already been signed. So too have other bills, but not the COJ bill whose deadline for a signature was perceived to be around now.
But such deadlines are a bit more fluid in practice, legislative insiders say. The act of “delivering” the bill to the governor is a step all on its own and the legislature can actually withhold its formal delivery to avoid setting the clock in motion.
According to an official who’s familiar with the process, it could be months before the dotted line is signed. The official, who asked not to be named, explained that upon the bill being delivered to the governor’s office, only then will Governor Andrew Cuomo have 10 days to sign it. The legislature can also technically withhold delivery up until the very end of the year. This, the official explained, is done to ensure that legislation is thoroughly vetted, with extra checks to guarantee that bills are not unconstitutional and that they’ll lead to no previously unforeseen consequences.
Cuomo has already signed a bill allowing Congress to access Trump’s state tax returns, a bill raising the tobacco & e-cig buying age to 21, a bill guaranteeing women equal pay, and many more. All of which means the COJ bill could be next at any moment or it could be sentenced to signature purgatory until the last business day of 2019.
As the public waits with bated breath, small business finance companies are already planning next steps. Ian Nadjari, the Managing Director of Riverstrong Capital Funding, who said that his office was “not feeling good about [the bill],” is planning to drop their use of COJs entirely and update the terms of their future contracts. Nadjari aims to continue business regardless of the impending changes, he said.
Uplyft Capital CEO Michael Massa, explained that the bill is just a “change that we’ll have to adapt to. Certain players will be okay if they understand how COJs work.”
Several small business funding CEOs explained to AltFinanceDaily that they welcome S6395 with the belief that it will level the playing field. One asserted that it will “eliminate some of the bad practices in the market,” such as the “offensive, aggressive measures” taken by firms who filed COJs too quickly or potentially in bad faith.
That perception, that such practices are not only possible, but have occurred, has garnered attention far beyond New York State. On June 26, for example, several members of Congress held a hearing to discuss COJs and their impact to further support for a federal bill that would ban them from use nationwide. That bill has a quite a bit a ways to go before it ever potentially even comes up for a floor vote.
Lending Express Rebrands to Become
July 16, 2019Lending Express, a company whose CEO was once a master gamer, has rebranded to Become.
“This transition comes at a pivotal point in the company’s growth and highlights its dedication to providing businesses with opportunities to improve fundability, secure funding, and ultimately become more,” a company spokesperson wrote.
According to the company, their online loan marketplace grew from just one lending partner in Australia to over 50 lending partners, operating in both Australia and the US. They’ve facilitated more than $150 million in funding and have over 150K members on their platform to date. Their journey is documented on a blog post published this week.
OnDeck Canada, Credit Union Announce Partnership
July 11, 2019
Today sees the partnership of OnDeck Canada and Coast Capital Savings, the first collaboration of its kind in Canada, being between an online lending company and a federal credit union.
Beginning this month, small business members of Coast Capital will be able to apply for term loan financing from OnDeck Canada of up to CAD$250,000 online, in branch, and via the Coast Capital Contact Centre. And as a perk of partnering with an alternative financing company, Coast Capital members will benefit from the fast turnaround times for approvals and funds being made available that are typical of the industry, with waits being as short as one day.
The move comes as OnDeck Canada is expanding to Quebec, paralleling Coast Capital’s efforts to spread across the nation, beyond its home of British Colombia. Both parties appear to be approaching the partnership with similar visions of where it will take them, with Tiffany Kayar, the OnDeck Canada Communications Manager, explaining that OnDeck is able to further help fund those small businesses who have been historically underserved by alternative financing, and Coast Capital will benefit from a greater national presence.
It is one more notch on OnDeck’s belt of partnerships, coming after the online lender linked with JPMorgan Chase in 2017 and PNC Financial Services Group last year to extend loans to businesses.
And for Coast Capital, which has the largest membership base of any credit union in Canada, it is a development that is consistent with their history of innovation. Having offered Canada’s first free checking account from a full-service financial institution and Help Extras®, which further assist members with investing, this opening up of funding channels to small business owners further cements Coast Capital’s position as a unique non-bank choice for finance management.
With small businesses comprising 98% of Canadian businesses, this partnership is hoping to provide support for such a large sector of the country’s economy. Saying in a press release that “As the proven leader in online small business lending, OnDeck Canada is delighted to partner with Coast Capital to offer online financing to its small business customers, ensuring that their unique and ever-evolving needs are met faster than ever with the power of automation and a world class digitized customer experience,” Neil Wechsler, CEO of OnDeck Canada, is confident that the synergy between OnDeck’s tech and Coast Capital’s membership will benefit the Canadian business community. Just as Derek Turner, Head of Small Business at Coast Capital, is sure that the partnership will “deliver the Coast Capital experience that so many members already enjoy, to even more people across Canada.”
Peer-to-Peer Lending’s Global Struggle
July 8, 2019New rules were introduced to peer-to-peer lending in Britain this month with the introduction of Policy Statement 19/14 by the government. The document heralds in a number of new processes that will be required to be enacted by peer-to-peer lending platforms in the UK by early December this year, if they are to continue operating unmolested.
Among these rules is the expectation for stricter transparency and honesty between platforms and potential investors, specifically with regard to the practice of using borrowers’, investors’, and even the business’s own money to pay for defaulted loans. As well as this there is the introduction of appropriateness tests to ensure that those who are candidates to become investors understand the various risks of the industry they are prospecting.
Such tests aren’t new to the alternative finance industry, as they have been previously employed for both crowd bonds and equity crowdfunding. But that doesn’t mean that they will comfortably slide into use among peer-to-peer lending processes. The question about when they will be asked to complete the test during the application, be it at the beginning, upon completion of the first form, or after receiving confirmation of a loan, remains unanswered; there are concerns that lending platforms will take a ‘tick all boxes’ approach and pose unsatisfactory questions; and the fear that only larger firms will be able to afford the costs to install these compliance checks, thus edging out smaller peer-to-peer lending companies from the market, is common.
The publication of the document comes after years of success for peer-to-peer lending within the British market. With the previous 12 months showcasing £6.7 billion in peer-to-peer loans being taken out, more than any other European country, the market initially appears to be doing well, but stories about firms collapsing or exiting from the industry indicate otherwise. For example, Lendy, one of the first and largest peer-to-peer platforms in the UK collapsed and left 20,000 investors uncertain about the £160 million that was outstanding in loans; while BondMason withdrew completely from the market, pivoting into alternative property investment services.
Looking forward, it appears as if lending platforms in the UK may become less reliant on retail investors and seek out more institutional investors who better understand the risks of peer-to-peer lending.
Peer-to-peer lending has gone through it own iterations in the US, with two platforms still thought of as peer-to-peer (but perhaps are no longer!) recently squaring off with the SEC. Last year, two former executives of Lending Club agreed to settle charges with the SEC for improperly adjusting returns of a related fund and this past April, Prosper Funding LLC agreed to pay a $3 million penalty for miscalculating and materially overstating annualized net returns to retail and other investors.
It could be worse.
China is currently watching its own peer-to-peer lending market collapse, despite the industry previously having drawn 50 million investors. With estimates claiming that half of the market was wiped out in 2018, and forecasts saying that 70% of those that survived will be gone by year end, China is on track to lose 85% of its peer-to-peer platforms within 24 months. This follows a number of cases of executives of Chinese peer-to-peer lending firms embezzling money and fleeing, leading to stories like the 31-year-old woman who hung herself when faced with the reality of losing $40,000 after a shareholder of PPMiao, a state-backed peer-to-peer platform, ran off when the firm went bust, reneging on any accountability.
“It’s amazing how quickly it’s unraveling,” said Zennon Kapron, the managing director of Shanghai-based consulting firm Kapronasia, about the peer-to-peer industry. And while Kapron was speaking about the Chinese market, governments worldwide have shifted from nurturing peer-to-peer lenders to policing them and diligently trying to rein them in.
