2017 Small Business Financing Leaderboard
March 14, 2018Thanks to several companies filing their annual earnings statements and Funding Circle disclosing their USA origination figures for 2017, we’ve been able to put together a leaderboard in the small business financing space. This list is not comprehensive and omits key players like PayPal Working Capital and Amazon Lending.
| Company Name | 2017 Originations | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 |
| OnDeck | $2,114,663,000 | $2,400,000,000 | $1,900,000,000 | $1,200,000,000 |
| Kabbage | $1,500,000,000 | $1,220,000,000 | $900,000,000 | $350,000,000 |
| Square Capital | $1,177,000,000 | $798,000,000 | $400,000,000 | $100,000,000 |
| Yellowstone Capital | $553,000,000 | $460,000,000 | $422,000,000 | $290,000,000 |
| Funding Circle (USA only) | $500,000,000 | |||
| BlueVine | $500,000,000* | $200,000,000* | ||
| National Funding | $427,000,000 | $350,000,000 | $293,000,000 | |
| Strategic Funding | $393,000,000 | $375,000,000 | $375,000,000 | $280,000,000 |
| BFS Capital | $300,000,000 | $300,000,000 | ||
| RapidAdvance | $260,000,000 | $280,000,000 | $195,000,000 | |
| Credibly | $180,000,000 | $150,000,000 | $95,000,000 | $55,000,000 |
| Shopify | $140,000,000 | |||
| Forward Financing | $125,000,000 | |||
| IOU Financial | $91,300,000 | $107,600,000 | $146,400,000 | $100,000,000 |
*Asterisks signify that the figure is the editor’s estimate
SmartBiz Becomes the Number One Provider of SBA Loans Under $350,000
February 14, 2018
SmartBiz Loans announced today that it was the number one facilitator of SBA 7(a) loans under $350,000 for the 2017 calendar year, surpassing JP Morgan Chase.
“I think the biggest factor [in hitting this milestone] is that we have been laser focused on meeting the needs of small business customers in the U.S.,” SmartBiz CEO Evan Singer told AltFinanceDaily.
SmartBiz facilitated $329 million in funded SBA 7(a) loans for $350,000 or less for the 2017 calendar year while JP Morgan Chase generated $322 million, putting it in second place. SBA loans (the acronym stands for Small Business Administration) are guaranteed by the U.S. government. Traditional SBA 7(a) loans, which SmartBiz focuses on, are backed by the government 75 to 80 percent, according to Singer, while 7(a) Express loans are only backed 50 percent, making the interest on those loans higher. Previously, SmartBiz was number one in funding SBA 7(a) loans, excluding Express loans. Now it leads in both categories.
The San Francisco-based company was incubated by PayPal and launched in 2010. Originally, it was a consumer credit platform, but then pivoted to the small business space in 2012 and started facilitating SBA loans in 2013, Singer said. The company sold off its consumer business and is now exclusively devoted to facilitating SBA loans, which typically have a repayment term of 10 years for a loan of $350,000 or less.
SmartBiz has made obtaining SBA loans easier for small businesses by making loan underwriting and origination easier for banks. The key has been technology. For instance, Singer said that many banks will not make small business loans for less than $250,000 because it isn’t profitable for them. Banks tell Singer that it takes the same amount of time to underwrite and originate a $200,000 loan as it does for a $2 million loan.
“So what we are focused on is [making] software to help automate the underwriting and origination process for banks so that smaller loans become profitable for them,” Singer said.
So far, this has been working. Singer said the company’s partner banks tell them that they are able to reduce 90 percent of the costs on the retail side when looking at smaller loans. Some of SmartBiz’s partner banks include Celtic Bank in Salt Lake City, UT, First Home Bank in St. Petersburg, FL, and Five Star Bank in Sacramento, CA.
SmartBiz also has an office in Austin, TX and employs a little over 100 people.
Will 2018 Be a Special Year?
December 29, 2017
2018 is going to be different, in a good way. That’s word on the street in the alternative finance industry, many of whom have told me that it’s just something they feel.
I feel it too. The S&P 500 is at an all-time high, Bitcoin is up more than 1,400% for the year, lenders are lending in full force, and on top of it all, Donald Trump is president. The world is changing and from a one thousand foot view, it’s an exciting time for finance.
2018 will welcome Broker Fair, the inaugural conference for MCA and business loan brokers.
2018 will transform alternative finance into just finance. For example, a mailer I received from PayPal advertising a small business loan up to $500,000 in as quick as 1 business day, included a letter signed by a top manager of Swift Capital. PayPal acquired Swift in 2017. Yesterday’s alternative loan is simply today’s loan. The one-day small business loan is becoming normalized and being offered by widely recognized financial companies.
Ripple surpassed Ethereum this morning to become the 2nd largest cryptocurrency by market cap. Cryptocurrency, once the domain of Bitcoin-obsessed internet anarchists, is quickly being adopted by the world’s largest banks.
It’s one thing to just talk about innovations in finance and another to realize that you now rely on those innovations. My company got a loan from Square, I got insurance through CoverWallet, I have funds in Lending Club, Prosper, Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Bitcoin Cash. Coinbase is the new etrade. MCA and online business loans are the new community banks. Payments can be made instantly and cost effectively.
2018 will be special because the world that we predicted would come, has come. That means it will be time to think about what will come even next. Online lending has come, instant payments has come, cryptocurrency is fast approaching. What will be the cool edgy hip thing in the ’20s that we may once again refer to as alternative? Mull that one over for a bit and consider that in the next decade the sexy fintech companies of the 20-teens will be stodgy financial institutions in the 2020s. This decade’s innovation will become part of the boring normal manner in which finance is transacted. That’s a fact.
Enjoy 2018. I know I will.
Happy new year,
– Sean
LendUp May Have a Leg-up
November 1, 2017
AltFinanceDaily recently sat down with LendUp CEO Sasha Orloff and COO Vijesh Iyer at an auspicious time. The company, an online lender that provides consumers with alternatives to payday loans and credit cards, is uniquely positioned in the wake of the CFPB’s 1600+ page Payday loan rule that was issued in early October.
And that’s not exactly an accident. Orloff says the company was founded (5 years ago) with the expectation that the CFPB would issue an eventual rule. “At the time, we had no idea what it was going to be but I could imagine that if they were going to write a federal rule that it would completely change the industry,” he said.
Orloff’s journey, as he tells it, began by reading Banker to the Poor, which inspired him to move to rural Honduras nearly 15 years ago to help the Grameen Foundation, a non-profit that focuses on providing loans and education to the poorest of communities. He was only 21 at the time. After a three-year tour, he moved on to roles at The World Bank, Citi, and finally starting in 2012, LendUp.
When LendUp was being envisioned, he explains, the smart phone was making it possible for consumers to access financial services outside of what was in their neighborhood and bank technology was the last thing that was going to become modernized.
“The CFPB rule was going to make it harder for banks to work with underserved consumers,” he says. “So we said let’s start a financial services company that focuses exclusively on the people that have the least amount of options and let’s start reinventing [these] products one at a time.”
And with that, they consulted academics, educators, government officials, and people from the industry. “How do you give somebody credit in an emergency fashion that can change it from a trap into an opportunity? And so we did that and it turned out the rule looked really similar to what we did,” he explains.
“I think there’s a lot of things they got right [about the CFPB rule],” he says in regards to how to eliminate debt traps. LendUp, for example, doesn’t allow customers to roll over their loans, they have to pay off their loans in full before they can consider borrowing again. Rollovers were a big sticking point for the CFPB when they published their rule last month. Their official announcement on the matter had stated that “many borrowers end up repeatedly rolling over or refinancing their [payday] loans, each time racking up expensive new charges. More than four out of five payday loans are re-borrowed within a month, usually right when the loan is due or shortly thereafter. And nearly one-in-four initial payday loans are re-borrowed nine times or more, with the borrower paying far more in fees than they received in credit.”
One piece of the payday alternative puzzle is in the underwriting. COO Vijesh Iyer, an alumni of both Capital One and PayPal, says “we basically use a variety of data sources, both the traditional bureaus and as what we call the non-traditional bureaus.” For the credit card product, LendUp will pull credit from a traditional bureau. “For the small dollar loan product we use non-traditional CRAs,” he says. Their team of data scientists tries to extract the most significant signals out of all of the data sources they have at their disposal. “That’s really valuable when you’re dealing with a subprime customer where the reason why someone could be underserved or subprime is very different. We all have different life stories and we’re really trying to figure out the differences which we get from multiple signals, multiple data sources.”
“The easiest person to convince that we’re a better product is an existing payday user,” Orloff says. “because it’s slightly cheaper at the beginning, it gets much cheaper over time. It has a lot more flexibility. It gives people for the first time the opportunity to report to the credit bureaus. It teaches you better financial behavior. You can do it on a mobile phone. You can get alerts and reminders…”
Meanwhile, payday borrowers always have to pay the same amount, Orloff contends. The loan terms don’t improve, he says. One notable advantage a LendUp borrower might experience is that when they first run into trouble with making a LendUp loan payment, they can get a few extra days leeway at no extra charge, which usually comes as a welcome surprise.
Granted, a LendUp loan’s APR can still look pretty steep. A calculator on their website offers an example of one that is 458.86% APR. Orloff says a part of understanding that is understanding what a consumer’s options are and what the costs to process the applications are. A 220% APR might only equate to something like $30 total in fees depending on what the loan terms are, he explains. Their borrowers don’t get paid in APR though he says, they get paid in dollars. “They care about what’s the total cost of credit in terms of dollars.”
“Our customers pay more than that on overdraft fees,” Iyer adds. “Every time they have a slight overdraft, even if it’s for a dollar, even if it’s 10 cents. Even if it’s two dollars. No one ever tries to evaluate what the APR for that is. But that is their fee and this is also a fee.”
But more than anything else, it’s about whether the borrower’s and lender’s interests are aligned, Iyers contends. Right now, LendUp believes they’re doing the right thing at the right time.
—
This interview was conducted at Money2020 in Las Vegas
View From The C-Suite: Alternative Funding Execs Talk Shop, The Landscape, And The Future
October 30, 2017
Alternative funders have had a roller coaster 2017 with highs and lows that will likely be remembered as a high-stakes time for the industry, one in which the rubber met the road for many and the market landscape shifted for everyone from funders, to merchants to brokers.
Three C-Suite executives in the alternative funding space — Christine Chang, CEO of 6th Avenue Capital, Heather Francis, CEO of Elevate Funding and Torrie Inouye, National Funding president — spoke with AltFinanceDaily, offering their take on some of the industry shakeups, direction of the alt lending space and upcoming developments at their respective companies.
All three execs are embracing what appears to be shaping up as a bigger and better 2018 with plans on the horizon for new products, relationships and deals but also where there could be further shakeout as the shift in the industry landscape takes hold.
Industry Landscape
6th Avenue Capital, provides short-term funding to merchants that Chang describes as “high touch, high tech and fast.” The company is building an SEC RIA compliant infrastructure as Chang believes that MCA regulation will take place over the next several years. Chang said she is sympathetic to the banks and the onerous rules that they must follow, and whatever form the industry regulation eventually takes on, the company will be ready for.
A recent story in The Wall Street Journal points to community banks comprised of those with less than $10 billion in assets historically funding local merchants in what’s dubbed character-based lending. As the name suggests, the underwriting standard for the loans was tied to the character of the business owner, which the lender knew based on personal relationships in their own communities.
The financial crisis gave rise to greater regulation, driving a spike in that model and the rest is history. Small banks were forced to direct their resources toward risk management and compliance instead of adding more personnel to service loans. The WSJ quotes a small business lender that bears repeating: “When they created too big to fail, they also created too small to succeed.”
When that door closed, however, another one opened, creating the opportunity for alt lenders to service a niche that was getting left out in the cold.
“The alternative funding industry is here to stay. That’s good news for MCA and fintech in general. There’s a need for fast funding and there will continue to be a trend toward that,” said Chang.
Banks, meanwhile, have started coming to the fintech table to compete for deals. “We’re in the process of speaking to a number of banks, some quite large and some regional, that have expressed an interest. We think this is a great opportunity for them. The idea is that we’d help them to serve a population of clients that they would not otherwise be able to serve,” said Chang.
6th Avenue has had discussions about white labeling and customizing the platform for institutions. “We would run everything for them,” said Chang.
In addition to possible new banking relationships, 6th Avenue Capital, backed by a private family and institutional investors, will expand the business model to include more investors on its platform. “We are in discussions with a number of significant international investors. It’s in the works. We’re building an institutional infrastructure, so it was always contemplated,” she said.
Elevate Funding, whose is 100% referral-based and whose product suite is comprised of a trio of MCA solutions, is coming up on its three-year anniversary in December.
“When I created Elevate, I did it with the purpose of providing a product to high-risk merchants. That’s who we deal with. We’re not dealing with credit scores. There is a level of risk to who we work with. Elevate was created to provide a product that is going to fit their needs and also provide a product that doesn’t treat them like they’re high risk. That’s who we are,” said Francis.
Gainesville, FL-based Elevate recently hired Michael Gaura to spearhead a new MCA product that the company is rolling out in 2018. Francis held the details of the new funding product close to the vest, but she did offer her views on the direction of the MCA and alternative lending space.
“I see difficulty in the coming years, especially in 2018, for qualified lead flow. You have a lot of big banks that are getting into this industry. And that’s a lot of marketing dollars that you’re competing against.”
She points to JPMorgan Chase, American Express, Square and PayPal, saying they are “huge marketing dollar companies” with tremendous access to customers on their respective platforms.
“There’s going to be a shakeout of what can you reach, who can you reach, can you get them the first time? How do you engage them to where they only want to work with you and they’re not submitting 20 applications for every website they come across?”, Francis said.
San Diego, Calif.-based National Funding is a balance sheet lender whose primary product is loans, not MCAs. The broker factor has changed significantly for the lender in a very positive way this year. “We’re really seeing sizeable growth in our broker channel in 2017 and have designed a strong and consistent process for our broker clients” Inouye said. The leads have been driven by a variety of factors, not the least of which comes down to CAN Capital and Bizfi’s loss being National Funding’s gain.
“That’s a factor we can’t ignore. The broker community has rewarded us for being consistent and building those relationships and being a partner to them,” Inouye said. “We definitely saw an uptick in business when they left the space. I can say we’ve continually experienced sizeable growth in our broker channel year over year but 2017 was beyond what we had expected. It surpassed other years.”
Incidentally, National Funding was one of the earliest alt funders on the scene along with CAN Capital in the 1990s. CAN’s fate started unraveling about this time a year ago.
“It’s not positive when you see that happen in the industry. However, we are really focused on what we’re doing and the decisions we’re making internally. I think that’s why we’ve consistently had profitable growth over the years. We’ve stayed true to our underwriting principles and the market seems to have rewarded us. We were consistent and not erratic. Brokers know they can rely on us and feel confident that we would quickly fund their deal once we issued an approval,” said Inouye.
The Broker Effect
Elevate, a balance sheet funder, relies on outside brokers and referrals for deals. “I don’t find it a disadvantage for us not having an internal sales team. A lot of companies in this space have the ability for a chief marketing officer who focuses entirely on leads. Elevate isn’t there yet. Will we be there in five years? Maybe. Marketing can change by that time,” Francis said.
6th Avenue Capital welcomes relationships with brokers as well. “We have an in-house business development team that works with brokers. 6th Avenue Capital is also considering direct sales in niche strategies in its future,” said Chang.
6th Avenue Capital has a starter program in which there are no guarantees but considers businesses that have been in existence for less than a year and businesses with credit scores of 500 or more. Plus, they’re willing to do consolidations up to two advances.
In addition, 6th Avenue Capital is open to offering financing to brokers. “It’s really good in that there is an alignment of interests and allows brokers to participate in the deals they put forth. If they think the merchant is credit worthy and a terrific opportunity, they participate. Everyone has skin in the game and interests are aligned,” Chang said.
Technology
While technology is at the core of fintech, all three of the companies take a hybrid approach when it comes to credit underwriting comprised of a tech platform and the human touch, which perhaps keeps character-based lending alive in some form.
With respect to fintech, “6th Avenue Capital’s philosophy is that technology is a tool to supplement human underwriting. We use technology to detect fraud, manage workload processes and manage risk. We do not use technology to make our final decisions,” said Chang.
Specifically, 6th Avenue Capital benefits from research, artificial intelligence and predictive technology of its sister company Nexlend Capital. 6th Avenue Capital has customized Nexlend’s consumer lending algorithmic intellectual property, which uses machine learning and credit analysis with high speed execution to make better and faster decisions.
Elevate also takes a dual-approach to its underwriting process. “I believe in a hybrid method. You have to have someone looking at it, to have eyes on the paper at some point in the process. This doesn’t mean a computer system can’t help to weed out what might not meet the criteria, but I do believe there needs to be a person reviewing the files,” Francis said.
National Funding was started as an equipment leasing company. “We apply some principles we learned as a leasing company and take into account all of the attributes that go into that business in addition to FICO and cash flow,” Inouye said.
Automation is an area of technology that they continue to look to for innovation and process efficiencies. “We do serve our customers online, but we also provide a human contact as well. We deliver a loan experience that builds trust and confidence with customers. We try to deliver on what our customers want in the most efficient way,” said National Funding’s Inouye.
National Funding continues to look at construction deals and accepts them as a niche in their portfolio, which Inouye said differentiates the company. “It allows us to be more flexible and comfortable with certain industries that other lenders might stay away from.”
Corporate Culture
2017 has been a roller coaster year for fintech including alt funders. While there have been plenty of bright spots, there was also some fallout that left veteran players scrambling to salvage either their reputation, status as a funder or both.
SoFi has been at the center of controversies that resulted in the Mike Cagney leaving his chairman post with plans to step down as CEO. Most recently, the lender has removed its application for a bank charter, according to reports.
We asked Elevate’s Francis about it. “SoFi is a very big company. They’re to the level where the CEO has people to answer to. They have a checks and balances system they need to go through,” said Francis. “It worked, and they removed him.”
Francis maintains an open-door policy with her employees, and she says all you can do is focus on your house and keep your house in order. “My door is always open. That’s our office policy. They use that quite frequently; it’s a catch 22,” she said with a laugh.
Fintech and Diversity
Something else that all three executives have in common is that they are all women in top roles in fintech, an industry that isn’t known for its diversity.
6th Avenue’s Chang’s career includes working at a large institutional bank for six years. Out of 200 professionals, only four of them in her group were women. “At the end of the day, performance is the best differentiator. If you perform well, it presents unique opportunities. At 6th Avenue Capital, diversity is embraced. Our underlying merchants aren’t just one gender or color. Diversity helps us understand the needs of small businesses better, so we can provide fast and customized funding quickly,” she said.
Q&A With Noah Breslow On Replacing ACH For Realtime Funding and More
October 25, 2017
An announcement by OnDeck, Ingo Money and Visa this week at Money2020 may be more consequential than it appeared. That’s because the partnership enables OnDeck to actually fund a merchant’s bank account (not their debit card) on days, nights, weekends, and holidays. Such a feature is not possible in the realm of ACH where funding typically takes place on the next business day and only if the transaction is submitted before a predetermined cutoff time. AltFinanceDaily got to learn more about how this works in an interview with OnDeck CEO Noah Breslow on Tuesday as well as the opportunity to pick his brain about a few other things. Below is a curated excerpt of the interview that has been edited for brevity.
AltFinanceDaily: For this real time funding you announced, do you have to have a Visa debit card?
Breslow: You do not, but you have to have a debit card. 70% of small business owners have debit cards. And this will work with Visa or Mastercard.
AltFinanceDaily: So you’re not actually funding a merchant’s debit card, you’re funding their bank account but using the Visa network as the mechanism?
Breslow: It’s the rails, it’s the way to get the money into a small business owner’s checking account. My prediction is that every funder in the industry is going to be doing this in a couple of years. It’s going to be faster and small businesses will start to expect it. Now instead of waiting 2 days to get the money into someone’s account, it can be done on nights, weekends, holidays, 365 days a year.
AltFinanceDaily: So you can fund a merchant’s bank account on the weekend?
Breslow: Yes, it’s real time. And to be clear we partnered with Ingo Money, Visa has the rails. Ingo is our interface point, they do the PCI compliance and the rest. We looked at a bunch of different players in the market and Ingo was unique in that they had covered small business checking accounts. Some of this stuff is happening in consumer already. We’re the first lender to use these rails for either consumer or small business in the US.
AltFinanceDaily: Has this already gone into effect?
Breslow: No, it’s coming out in a couple months. Early 2018.
AltFinanceDaily: Does this system work with every bank already?
Breslow: It doesn’t work with every bank yet. It works with most of them, all of the major ones.
AltFinanceDaily: Speaking of payments… Square. PayPal. They’re both payments companies first that went into lending. Is there a potential reverse play for OnDeck to go into payments?
Breslow: Right now our product expansion stuff is very focused on additional lending products. I still feel like we haven’t lived up to our full potential there. There’s a couple other product categories that we’ve looked at and thought about. Equipment finance is one, invoice factoring, small business credit cards. And so we look to be the best small business lender in the world with the best set of products. And then we can partner with a lot of the payments companies. But right now, no we’re not going to sell merchant processing. Never say never, but not in the near future.
AltFinanceDaily: Any news on the Chase front?
Breslow: We re-upped our agreement with them in early August. The customer experience is amazing, our platform is scaling, and we’re making progress. I can’t tell you a lot of other details about it.
AltFinanceDaily: I’ve heard from folks in the industry about merchants who are being debited by Chase either daily or weekly. Is that you?
Breslow: That would be our platform. Chase’s product is more or less like the OnDeck product but cheaper obviously. It’s a daily or weekly collected loan. It goes up to 24 months for $200,000.
AltFinanceDaily: I want to ask you about brokers, or as you call them “funding advisors.” Do you anticipate reliance on them increasing or decreasing?
Breslow: Stable. I don’t anticipate it moving up or down. We really like the funding advisors that we have and we’re continuing to grow with them. We’re also adding some new ones.
AltFinanceDaily: What makes a good broker? What can they do to do things right?
Breslow: The value equation between the merchant, the lender and yourself has to be in balance. They should also be efficient and know the credit box of the lender they’re working with. They should invest in their employees, train them, and they should become more sophisticated about their online marketing and CRMs, which we’ve been seeing.
AltFinanceDaily: Everyone’s talking about blockchain at this conference. Is there a way that blockchain fits into online lending and possibly OnDeck?
Breslow: I love the technology, I’m very intrigued by it. But we’re not actively using it and it’s not like I have a secret blockchain project in the works.
AltFinanceDaily: Is there a universe in which OnDeck considers making an acquisition of a company?
Breslow: So we’re not totally opposed to that. They’re might be an opportunity for a complementary product or a complementary team. I think you’re going to see a lot of consolidation in the industry in the next 3-5 years.
The Top Small Business Funders By Revenue
October 23, 2017The below chart ranks several companies in the non-bank small business financing space by revenue over the last 5 years. The data is primarily drawn from reports submitted to the Inc. 5000 list, public earnings statements, or published media reports. It is not comprehensive. Companies for which no data is publicly available are excluded.
| Company | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 |
| Square1 | $1,708,721,000 | $1,267,118,000 | $850,192,000 | $552,433,000 | $203,449,000 |
| OnDeck2 | $291,300,000 | $254,700,000 | $158,100,000 | $65,200,000 | $25,600,000 |
| Kabbage3 | $171,784,000 | $97,461,712 | $40,193,000 | ||
| Swift Capital4 | $88,600,000 | $51,400,000 | $27,540,900 | $11,703,500 | |
| National Funding | $75,693,096 | $59,075,878 | $39,048,959 | $26,707,000 | $18,643,813 |
| Reliant Funding5 | $51,946,472 | $11,294,044 | $9,723,924 | $5,968,009 | $2,096,324 |
| Fora Financial6 | $41,590,720 | $33,974,000 | $26,932,581 | $18,418,300 | |
| Forward Financing | $28,305,078 | ||||
| Gibraltar Business Capital | $15,984,688 | ||||
| Tax Guard | $9,886,365 | $8,197,755 | $5,142,739 | $4,354,787 | |
| United Capital Source | $8,465,260 | $3,917,193 | |||
| Blue Bridge Financial | $6,569,714 | $5,470,564 | |||
| Lighter Capital | $6,364,417 | $4,364,907 | |||
| Fast Capital 360 | $6,264,924 | ||||
| US Business Funding | $5,794,936 | ||||
| Cashbloom | $5,404,123 | $4,804,112 | $3,941,819 | $3,823,893 | $2,555,140 |
| Fund&Grow | $4,082,130 | ||||
| Nav | $2,663,344 | ||||
| Priority Funding Solutions | $2,599,931 | ||||
| StreetShares | $647,119 | $239,593 | |||
| CAN Capital7 | $213,402,616 | $269,852,762 | $215,503,978 | $151,606,959 | |
| Bizfi8 | $79,886,000 | $51,475,000 | $38,715,312 | ||
| Quick Bridge Funding | $48,856,909 | $44,603,626 | |||
| Funding Circle Holdings9 | $39,411,279 | $20,100,000 | $8,100,000 | ||
| Capify10 | $37,860,596 | $41,119,291 | |||
| Credibly11 | $26,265,198 | $14,603,213 | $7,013,359 | ||
| Envision Capital Group | $21,034,113 | $19,432,205 | $12,071,976 | $11,173,853 | |
| Capital Advance Solutions | $4,856,377 | ||||
| Channel Partners Capital | $2,207,927 | $4,013,608 | $3,673,990 | $2,208,488 | |
| Bankers Healthcare Group | $93,825,129 | $61,332,289 | |||
| Strada Capital | $8,765,600 | ||||
| Direct Capital | $432,780,164 | $329,350,716 | |||
| Snap Advances | $21,946,000 | ||||
| American Finance Solutions12 | $5,871,832 | $6,359,078 | |||
| The Business Backer13 | $19,593,171 | $11,205,755 | $9,615,062 |
1Square (SQ) went public in 2015
2OnDeck (ONDK) went public in 2014
3Kabbage received a $1.25B+ private market valuation in August 2017
4Swift Capital was acquired by PayPal (PYPL) in August 2017
5Reliant Funding was acquired by a PE firm in 2014
6Fora Financial was acquired by a PE firm in 2015
7CAN Capital ceased funding operations in December 2016 but resumed in July 2017
8Bizfi wound down in 2017. Credibly secured the servicing rights of their portfolio
9Funding Circle’s primary market is the UK
10Capify’s US operations were wound down in early 2017 and their operations were integrated with Strategic Funding Source. Capify’s international companies are still operating
11Credibly received a significant equity investment from a PE firm in 2015
12American Finance Solutions was acquired by Rapid Capital Funding in 2014, who was then immediately acquired by North American Bancard
13The Business Backer was acquired by Enova (ENVA) in 2015
Catching Up With Online Lending – A Timeline
October 21, 20177/17
- Online lender Upgrade, launched by former Lending Club CEO Renaud Laplanche, revealed it had already hired about 100 people
- Credit risk startup James closed $2.7M funding found led by Gaël de Boissard
7/18 – Former Bizfi COO Tomo Matsuo joined iPayment as an SVP to oversee its new merchant cash advance division
7/21 – SoFi Chief Revenue Officer Michael Tannenbaum departed the company
7/27
- Lending surpassed $500M in lifetime originations
- RealtyShares acquired marketplace platform Acquire Real Estate
7/28
- Former MB Financial Bank SVP Stan Scott became VP at Gibraltar Business Capital
- Prosper Marketplace shut down its Prosper Daily (formerly BillGuard) app
7/31 – First Associates Loan Servicing announced the opening of their new 1000-seat capacity operations center in Baja California, Mexico
8/1
- Ron Suber joined Credible.com as executive vice-chairman and a member of the board of directors
- PeerStreet integrated with Personal Capital
8/2
- Lending Loop raised $2M, launched automated investment platform
- PeerIQ secured $12M in Series A round
- OnDeck partnered with Payment Source in Canada
- Bread raised $126M in equity and debt
8/3 – Kabbage secured $250M in Series F round from SoftBank Group, was valued at more than $1.25B
8/9
- Former Capital One VP Heather Tuason became Chief Product Officer at StreetShares
- PayPal acquired Swift Capital
8/10 – Coinbase raised $100M at $1.6B valuation
8/11 – Former SoFi employee raised Brandon Charles filed a lawsuit against the company alleging among other things that he witnessed sexual harassment in the workplace
8/14
- Prosper closed $500M securitization, announced $775M in Q2 loan originations, $41.4M net loss
- Bitcoin surged past $4,000
8/15 – iPayment announced the formation of its new merchant cash advance division, iPayment Capital
8/16 – Fifth Third Bank made another equity investment in ApplePie Capital, agreed to purchase loans through the company’s marketplace
8/19 – Former CFO of Credibly became president of Western Funding
8/22 – Former SoFi employees filed a lawsuit against the company over wage issues
8/23 – Ellevest raised $32.5M
8/24 – AutoFi raised $10M in Series A
8/25 – Rep. Maxine Waters called for a congressional hearing on SoFi’s bank charter application and ILC charters in general
8/29 – Snap Finance secured $100M credit facility
8/30
- IOU Financial announced Q2 originations of $26.2M (US) and a net loss of $2.08M (CAD)
- ShopKeep launched ShopKeep Capital, a merchant cash advance service
8/31 – Bizfi wound down operations, sold servicing rights to its $250M portfolio to Credibly
9/2 – Bitcoin surpassed $5,000
9/5 – Former Chief Sales Officer of OnDEck, Paul Rosen, joined CoverWallet as COO
9/6 – Square revealed that they would apply for an ILC charter, following in the footsteps of SoFi
9/7
- Former Director of External Sales at OnDeck, Jared Kogan, joined Pearl Capital as Chief Revenue Officer
- First Internet Bank announces strategic partnership with Lendeavor, Inc.
9/11
- SoFi CEO Mike Cagney announced he had resigned as board chairman and would be resigning as CEO later in the year
- Lenda raised $5.25M Series A
9/12
- Groundfloor announced $100M loan purchase agreement with Direct Access Capital
- Orchard unveiled its Deals platform
- JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon called Bitcoin a fraud for stupid people
9/13 – dv01 closed $5.5M Series A
9/14 – SmartBiz surpassed $500M in lifetime SBA loan originations
9/15
- Amid more negative press, SoFi CEO Mike Cagney announced he was resigning as CEO immediately
- Enova announced $25M share repurchase program
9/20 – World Business Lenders acquired strategic assets of Bizfi including the company’s brand and marketplace
9/22 – Prosper Marketplace raised $50M in a Series G round at a 70% lower valuation of $550M
See previous timelines:
5/17/17 – 7/11/17
4/6/17 – 5/16/17
2/17/17 – 4/5/17
12/16/16 – 2/16/17
9/27/16 – 12/16/16
