BlueVine Raises $60 Million in Major Equity Deal
June 7, 2018
BlueVine announced this week that it closed $60 million in equity funding, the company’s largest funding round to date. The series E round was led by Menlo Ventures and includes new investors, including SVB Capital. All major existing investors also participated.
This new financing will be used to expand the company’s current invoice factoring and business line of credit products, and to develop new products.
“Our vision is to let our customers guide us,” BlueVine Chief Revenue Officer Eric Sager told AltFinanceDaily, with regard to what products might come next.
BlueVine also plans to use the funding to accelerate R&D hiring. BlueVine’s total funded volume since inception is expected to top $1 billion this year, according to the company’s press release.
“In just four years, BlueVine has scaled two major financing products,” said BlueVine CEO and founder Eyal Lifshitz.
Founded in 2013, the company started with a factoring product and later introduced a line of credit product. BlueVine provides business lines of credit up to $250,000 and invoice factoring lines up to $5 million. These maximum credit lines have been steadily increasing, with the factoring line of credit twice as large as it was at the beginning of the year, according to a AltFinanceDaily story from February. And its business line of credit was $150,000 at the start of the year.
The company generates its revenue about 50-50 from its factoring and line of credit products, and about 50 percent of its factoring clients also use its line of credit product, Sager said.
This new $60 million investment follows a credit facility of $200 million with Credit Suisse last month.
“BlueVine has continued to impress us since we first invested in 2015,” said Tyler Sosin, a partner at Menlo Ventures, in a written statement. “The company has demonstrated dramatic, sustainable growth and has proven that there is enduring value in developing a comprehensive offering of credit products that small and medium sized businesses can use throughout their lifetimes.”
Headquartered in Redwood City, CA, BlueVine also has offices in New Orleans, Jersey City and Tel Aviv, and employs approximately 200 people.
LeaseQ Partners with SEFA
June 5, 2018
LeaseQ, an online marketplace for equipment financing, announced a partnership yesterday with SEFA, a non-profit association of leading supply and equipment dealers in the food industry.
“SEFA is a group of 62 companies that work together like a big family to add value wherever they can,” said Vernon Tirey, founder and CEO of LeaseQ. “Unlike many buying groups, value-add is very important to them [and] that’s why we’re so excited to be part of the team.”
Tirey expressed enthusiasm about working with SEFA to develop financing solutions to meet the individual needs of each of SEFA’s members. LeaseQ has three kinds of clients: businesses seeking equipment financing, equipment dealers (like members of SEFA), and funding companies. LeaseQ earns money by charging a processing fee to funding companies for financing deals, Tirey told AltFinanceDaily. But the funding company rolls LeaseQ’s fee into its fee to the borrower, so the fee is ultimately paid by the borrower. Typically, for a five-year lease, LeaseQ’s fee is under two percent.
Aside from the benefit of LeaseQ getting new business from SEFA members, SEFA members will benefit by receiving certain perks from LeaseQ . For instance, Tirey said that LeaseQ has introduced a kiosk program for SEFA members where, among other offerings, SEFA members will be able to receive instant funding for transactions under $15,000.
LeaseQ facilitates equipment finance in over 20 different vertical markets, including agriculture, construction, oil and gas, medical devices.
Founded in 2012, the company is based in Burlington, MA, and employs 27 people.
How Gibraltar Capital Advance Became Wellen Capital
June 4, 2018
Gibraltar Capital Advance announced today that it has changed its name to Wellen Capital. The company had been a sister company of Gibraltar Business Capital, but since that company was acquired in March of this year, Gibraltar Capital Advance has operated independently.
“The Gibraltar name has been well-regarded as a leader in the alternative finance market for many years,” said Jim Teppen, President of what is now known as Wellen Capital. “We entrust it to our former colleagues at Gibraltar Business Capital, knowing they’ll successfully carry the brand’s tradition forward.”
Wellen is no one’s surname at the company, according to Chief Revenue Officer Steve O’Connor.
“One of the things that makes us unique in the capital advance space is that we’re from Chicago,” O’Connor said. “We’re a midwestern company, and the way that we crafted this name had a lot to do with words and phrases and images that were midwestern, even though it’s not obvious.”
O’Connor also noted that Wellen is easy to say and easy to type. In addition to the name change, the company also announced today the WellenScore Application Scoring System, Wellen’s proprietary, data-driven system for evaluating applications.
O’Connor acknowledged that alternative finance companies have been using algorithms to make funding decisions for years, with varying degrees of success.
“Our approach was always to gather enough data first to make sure that we had enough information to inform a data enabled decisioning model,” O’Connor said of Wellen, which was founded in 2012. “And that’s not the kind of thing you can just do overnight.”
The company has been using this system now for more than six months. This doesn’t mean that Wellen now relies exclusively on computers to make funding decisions.
“Our process leverages automation and data-enabled decisions, but isn’t just a ‘black box,’” said Wellen Chief Operating Officer Ed Job. “Good funding decisions are made by working with our sales partners to gather needed data and decide how to best structure a capital solution for our customers.”
Wellen, which provides merchant cash advance exclusively, is based in Chicago and employs 30 people.
Gibraltar Capital Advance Rebrands as Wellen Capital
June 4, 2018
Chicago, IL – June 4, 2018. Today, Gibraltar Capital Advance announced they have changed their name to Wellen Capital, LLC. Following the successful sale of related company Gibraltar Business Capital, LLC in February of this year, parent company TZ Mountain Capital Holdings, LLC began the process of re-branding Gibraltar Capital Advance.
Wellen is a data-enabled direct funding source in the merchant and business capital advance market. Since its founding in 2012, the company has experienced robust and steady growth, establishing itself as a leader in the small business finance market.
“The Gibraltar name has been well-regarded as a leader in the alternative finance market for many years. We entrust it to our former colleagues at Gibraltar Business Capital, knowing they’ll successfully carry the brand’s tradition forward” said Jim Teppen, President of Wellen. “We look forward to continuing to serve our customers, sales partners, and investors under a new name that we think embodies the values and culture of our company” said Teppen.
Along with the announcement of the new identity, Wellen is announcing the launch of WellenScore – a custom machine-learning based system for quickly and consistently conducting diligence reviews of small business funding applications. “The WellenScore system allows us to accurately analyze hundreds of individual elements of an application, and provide a decision back to our sales partners much more quickly than ever.” said Ed Job, Wellen’s Chief Operating Officer. “Our process leverages automation and data-enabled decisions, but isn’t just a ‘black box’” said Job. “Good funding decisions are made by working with our sales partners to gather needed data, and decide how to best structure a capital solution for our customers.”
About Wellen: Wellen Capital, LLC is a leading provider of working capital solutions to U.S. small businesses. Headquartered in Chicago, Wellen’s principal equityholders are Satori Capital, LLC of Dallas, TX and CCCC Growth Fund, LLC. of South Pasadena, CA.
Contact: Steven O’Connor
Phone: 224.374.1519
Email: soconnor@wellen.com
Yellowstone Capital Funded $64.5M in May
June 4, 2018Yellowstone Capital originated $64.5M in funding to small businesses in May, according to the company. The figure topped their previous month of $61M.
Report Demonstrates How Online Lenders Benefit Economy
May 31, 2018
A report on “The Economic Benefits of Online Lending to Small Businesses and the U.S. Economy” was released yesterday, using data from 180,000 U.S. small businesses that represented nearly $10 billion in funding from 2015 to 2017.
The report used data from five online lenders, including OnDeck, Kabbage and Lendio, and was sponsored by the Electronic Transactions Association (ETA), the Small Business Finance Association (SBFA) and the Innovative Lending Platform Association. The report was researched by three economists at NDP Analytics, an independent research firm.
One of the key findings was that the ten billion dollars funded from 2015 to 2017 by five of the top alternative small business lenders generated $37.7 billion in gross output and created 358,911 jobs and $12.6 billion in wages.
“I think the most important takeaway from this study is that small businesses are benefiting from a wide variety of choices in lending products,” said Jason Oxman, CEO of the ETA. “And, in particular, the online small business lenders have provided really a remarkable amount of working capital to small businesses in this country.”
Oxman told AltFinanceDaily that he was surprised to learn from the report the percentage of borrowers that operate extremely small businesses. According to the report, 24 percent of online business borrowers operate businesses that have less than $100,000 in annual sales. And two-thirds of online business borrowers had less than $500,000 in annual sales.
“These are clearly small businesses,” Oxman said. “These are companies that obviously have capital needs and are getting those needs met by online small business lenders.”
New York State was a focus of part of the research. According to a press release for the report, data extracted from it indicated that “overall, the small business loans provided by online lenders [from 2015 to 2017] generated $2.5 billion in gross output and created 20,154 jobs with over $795 million in wages” for communities in New York State.
“We [organized the report] with New York in mind,” said Steve Denis, Executive Director at the SBFA. “We wanted to send a message to show how much of an impact the online lending industry had on the state.”
Other interesting data from the report include:
— 75 percent of U.S. businesses have less than 10 employees.
— 22 percent of small business owners use their personal savings to expand
— Online lenders offer loans to companies in all stages of their life cycle and the distribution of company age is relatively uniform.
“[Alternative small business lending] is creating a lot of economic activity,” Denis said. “We’re helping to create jobs, and we need to protect this tool. It’s a valuable resource for businesses…and this [report] demonstrates how important it is to the economy.”
Breakout Capital Announces New $15MM Credit Facility with Medalist Partners
May 30, 2018Leading innovative fintech lender announces $15MM credit facility to further fuel its growth in small business lending
McLean, VA May 30, 2018 – Breakout Capital, a technology-enabled small business lender, announced today the launch of a new, $15MM credit facility with a fund managed by Medalist Partners. The new facility will enable Breakout Capital to continue the rapid expansion of its small business lending programs, including the award-winning FactorAdvantage℠ program, across the country.
“Medalist is an ideal partner to support our growth,” said Carl Fairbank, Founder & CEO of Breakout Capital. “They appreciate the tremendous value that FinTech lenders offer to small businesses through timely access to capital, and its vital role as a growth engine for our entire economy. And just as importantly, they are aligned with our values of innovation, transparency, and advocacy for small business.”
The facility will support Breakout Capital’s growth across traditional business loans, Breakout Bridge loans, and FactorAdvantage℠ program loans. In the patent-pending FactorAdvantage℠ program, Breakout Capital complements traditional A/R factoring with a hybrid business loan, enabling consolidations or overadvances.
“We believe the combination of strong underwriting, product innovation, and a top-notch management team is a great recipe for success,” said John Slonieski, Director of Private Credit for Medalist Partners. “We are excited to add this credit facility to our portfolio of high quality asset-based lending programs.”
Throughout 2018, Breakout Capital has continued to grow its origination volume, breaking records each month for new funding volume. In parallel, the company has continued to innovate in its technology program, with notable advances in machine learning, artificial intelligence, and use of the blockchain to support lending operations.
“We are privileged to have Medalist as a partner on our growth journey,” said Fairbank. “This new credit facility is key to our bringing more of our great products, together with our partners, to more small businesses.”
About Breakout Capital
Breakout Capital is a leading financial technology company, leveraging best-in-class technology to provide a wide range of credit solutions to small businesses across the country. Built on three pillars of transparency, education, and advocacy for small business, the company is one of the fastest-growing direct lenders in the space, and leads a world-class technology innovation effort. Breakout Capital is a Principal Member of the Innovative Lending Platform Association and an original advocate for the SmartBox™ standard for transparency and cost disclosure.
To learn more about Breakout Capital, please visit www.breakoutfinance.com.
About Medalist Partners
Medalist Partners is an SEC registered investment manager with approximately $900 million of assets under management as of May 1, 2018. The New York based firm manages strategies in specialty finance and structured credit. The business and track record was started within Credit Suisse and Candlewood Investment Group, LP prior to being spun-out as an independent, partner-owned firm in 2018.
To learn more about Medalist Partners, please visit www.medalistpartners.com.
BFS Co-founder Returns as Temporary CEO
May 23, 2018
Chairman and co-founder of BFS Capital Marc Glazer has assumed the role of Interim CEO. The former CEO, Michael Marrache, is no longer at the company.
“We’re on a nationwide search to find an individual that we feel will be an excellent candidate to continue BFS’s track record as a market leader and help grow the company,” Glazer said.
Founded in 2001, BFS is a veteran in the merchant cash advance industry. More than five years ago, the company began offering a business loan product, which now accounts for more than half of its revenue.
Glazer told AltFinanceDaily that when BFS started offering its loan product, it widened its customer base significantly such that a sizable percentage of its customers are now business to business companies. Glazer said that MCA funding would not work for these kinds of customers because many of them get paid by check or get paid in larger amounts, but not on a daily basis.
Glazer said that working with ISO partners has always been a critical part of the BFS business model. What does Glazer look for in an ISO?
“Ultimately, you want to work with ISOs that view the relationship with not only the funder, but the merchant, [in mind,]” he said. “We look at ourselves as a responsible funder and put out offers that we not only think help the merchant, but that have payment terms that the merchant can afford. And the ISOs that we look for are ones that do the same kind of matching with the merchant.”
BFS has funded 400 different types of merchants, from florists to nail salons. But Glazer said that a big portion of the company’s customer base comes from either the hospitality industry or parts of the construction industry, including plumbing. To date, BFS has delivered more than $1.75 billion in total financing to small and mid-sized businesses, including $300 million funded in 2017. Loans are typically offered through the company’s banking partner, Bank of the Internet, according to Glazer.
BFS is headquartered in Coral Springs, FL and has an office in New York and one in southern California. It also includes a wholly owned subsidiary in the UK called Boost Capital. Altogether, BFS employs about 200 people with the majority of employees at its Florida office.
