Why OnDeck and CAN Capital Nailed Their Treasury RFI Responses
October 1, 2015
A congressional staffer once told me that if you want your input to have any meaningful impact, you better bring hard statistics and numbers.
Both CAN Capital and OnDeck accomplished that in their comprehensive responses to the Treasury RFI.
OnDeck went a step further and even attached case studies that included photographs of actual small business owners they’ve helped. They also put to bed the notion that their business model is unregulated:
At the federal level, we are regulated by the SEC and subject to US securities laws. We further satisfy applicable lending requirements under, among others, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, and sanctions programs administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
They also clue us in to the size of the potential market they’re in. “It is estimated that there is $80-$120 billion in unmet demand for small business lines of credit,” they wrote.
Notably, they support the logic that a short term high APR loan can make more financial sense than a long term low APR loan. “With respect to loan cost, by matching a loan’s term with the estimated investment payback (or ROI) period, a small business can minimize total overall interest expense. For example, a loan used to purchase inventory can have a payback term that corresponds to the expected sale of the inventory — in this way, a borrower may pay less in total interest expense on a higher-rate, short-term loan than on a lower-rate, long-term loan (which may take weeks or months to procure).”
Meanwhile, CAN Capital explained just how time consuming the process can be for small business owners. “On average, a small business owner might spend over 30 hours applying for credit from a traditional lender and wait weeks or longer for the underwriting process to run its course and the funds to be disbursed, assuming the loan request is approve,” they wrote.
CAN’s response at time reads like an S-1 registration form (could there be a reason for that?). “Our approach to assessing the risk of small businesses and their ability to pay has been very effective, as manifested by our lifetime weighted average net write off rate of 7.2% over 17 years and more than $5.3 billion in funding transactions,” they say. “For returning customers that access capital through our platform more than once, we see an increase in their gross sales of approximately 7% on average between their first and last funding transaction.”
And if you don’t want your data sources to be questioned, the easy thing to do is cite governmental studies which both companies did often. “Traditional lenders are not serving the capital needs of small businesses. This is especially true when small businesses need $100,000 or less, which accounts for 90% of small business loans,” CAN wrote while citing a report published by the SBA’s Office of Advocacy.
CAN Capital Hits $5 Billion Milestone
May 7, 2015NEW YORK, NY, May 7, 2015 – CAN Capital, Inc., market share leader in the alternative small business finance space today announced that it has provided small businesses with access to more than $5.0 billion of working capital, more than any other company in the space. During its 17 years in business, CAN Capital has leveraged its proprietary data-driven models, technology and customer-focused delivery to cement its position as the largest and most experienced alternative finance company serving small businesses.
To date, CAN Capital has facilitated over 156,000 small business fundings in more than 540 unique industries. CAN Capital’s customer base continues to expand and its digital business grew 600 percent in 2014.
“Reaching this milestone underscores how CAN Capital’s innovative technologies have helped small business owners access much needed capital to grow their businesses,” says Daniel DeMeo, Chief Executive Officer, CAN Capital. “Small business owners have an appetite for investing in inventory, marketing and technology. We facilitate fast approvals and fundings so business owners can spend time focusing on these goals and running their businesses – instead of searching for capital.”
In April 2015, CAN Capital broke records by securing a $650MM credit facility from a dozen leading lenders including two of the three largest US banks – Wells Fargo and JP Morgan Chase – as well as two large international banks – UBS and Barclays. This transaction marks the largest of its kind to ever occur in the alternative finance industry. “Our performance and reputation as the vanguards in the alternative finance space position us for more success, more growth and a greater ability to serve even more small business owners,” says DeMeo.
“Small businesses are an incredibly important part of the American economy. We’re proud we’ve been able to support them over the past 17 years, and look forward to continuing to do so with new products that will help drive future growth for us and our customers.”
Hear the stories behind some of our successful small business customers here: YouTube.com/cancapital1.
About CAN Capital
CAN Capital, Inc., established in 1998, is the pioneer and market share leader in alternative small business finance, having provided access to over $5.0 billion in capital for tens of thousands of small businesses in a wide range of locations and different business types. As a technology-powered financial services provider, CAN Capital uses innovative and proprietary risk models combined with daily performance data to evaluate business performance and facilitate access to capital for entrepreneurs in a fast and efficient way.
CAN Capital makes capital available to businesses through its subsidiaries: Merchant Cash Advances by CAN Capital Merchant Services, Inc., and business loans through CAN Capital Asset Servicing, Inc. (CCAS). All business loans obtained through CCAS are made by WebBank, a Utah-chartered Industrial Bank, member FDIC.
For more information, please visit: www.cancapital.com. Follow CAN Capital on Twitter and Facebook.
CAN Capital Still King – $4 Billion Funded
April 29, 2014While college kids across the country are creating alternative lending platforms in their dorm rooms, industry king CAN Capital announced today that they have provided small businesses with more than $4 billion. That puts them on pace to be funding approximately $1 billion a year. ($3 billion milestone back in March 2013).
Word apparently leaked out on DailyFunder ahead of time, drawing several members to tip their hats on the achievement.
As of March 31, Lending Club had also surpassed the $4 billion mark, but with a major distinction, it was almost entirely consumer loans. In the business space, CAN Capital remains on top after 16 years, which sadly makes them older than some of the kids writing code in this industry.
In a lot of ways, code has become the new focal point of alternative lending. There’s sex appeal in having a NASA-worthy underwriting algorithm right now and everybody’s getting caught up in it, some at their own peril.Why stop at a hundred data points when you can have a thousand? Screw it, why not TEN THOUSAND?!
While strong on technology, CAN originates like a boss, having funded over 55,000 small businesses. The tech side is challenging enough for some companies, but it’s the difficulty in marketing that catches many entrepreneurs off guard. In Alex Binkley’s requiem of a defunct startup, Funding Community, he detailed the challenge in generating interest. Who you attract is not always who you’re looking to fund in business lending.
In 2014, there’s no shortage of sexy buzzwords dazzling investors, yet it’s a 1990’s era funding company that continues to dominate. Three out of four eligible customers return to them for additional funds according to their report. Having survived Y2K, the dot com bust, and the financial crisis, they are proof that it takes a lot more than fancy code and a catchy name to master the risky world of business lending. With 16 years worth of data, it may take until 2030 for this year’s new entrants to truly know what they know. $4 billion says a lot but it’s standing tall through both the good times and bad that makes all the difference.
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Photos borrowed from HBO’s Silicon Valley series.
Bank, Auto Lender, and BFS Capital Are New Additions to Canadian Lenders Association’s Board
February 11, 2020
The Canadian Lending Association has announced today that it has three newcomers to its board: BFS Capital’s CEO, Mark Ruddock; Cox Automotive Canada’s EVP, Jerome Dwight; and BMO’s Head of Specialty Finance and Loan Syndication in Canadian Commercial Banking, Lyla Kanji.
In a statement, Kanji said that she was “excited to join the CLA board and bring my expertise in specialty finance to help provide guidance to member companies.” While Ruddock commented that “After having focused for the past few years on financial technology innovation abroad, it’s thrilling to be back in Canada, and to be supporting Canadian businesses with access to the capital they need to power growth.”
Tal Schwartz, a spokesperson for the CLA, explained that he viewed new members joining the board as an indication of maturity for the Canadian market. With BFS being an established American alternative finance company and Cox offering auto loans, Schwartz told AltFinanceDaily that these companies “show that commercial and consumer financing is expanding beyond what we typically think of as an SME or as a regular borrower.”
On BMO, Schwartz was delighted to have one of Canada’s largest banks join the board. “To have a major bank join the CLA really underlines how robust and mature the alternative finance industry has become,” Schwartz noted. “For us, having BMO join is really breaking down that old world understanding of alternative versus mainstream lending and proving that there’s really just a continuum of different lending solutions depending on the profile of the borrower.”
BFS Capital Launches Canadian Tech Hub
October 16, 2019
Small business lender BFS Capital is making an expansion push with the creation of a new data science and engineering hub in Toronto. BFS, which serves customers in a trifecta of jurisdictions that in addition to Canada includes the U.S. and the UK, has undergone a technological transformation that includes building out a tech team for the next generation of the firm’s products.
BFS Capital CEO Mark Ruddock took some time to discuss the Toronto expansion with AltFinanceDaily.
“We have an ambitious roadmap and plan to innovate quickly,” said Ruddock, “As a result, we had to ask ourselves, where could we best do this? We looked at cities across North America with strong tech and data science talent, and which were millennial friendly. We were frankly quite surprised by Toronto. Something fundamental is happening in Toronto – it’s fast becoming a leading city for data science, AI, and mobile app development in North America.”
Indeed, AltFinanceDaily hosted its inaugural Canadian event in Toronto this past July after keeping an eye on its burgeoning fintech scene there for years.
“We are seeing a fundamental transformation happening in our customer base, from a less digitally savvy generation of entrepreneurs willing to accept the traditional financial products to a demanding, digital first generation, seeking new financial solutions,” said Ruddock, pointing to a two-pronged approach of real-time algorithmic decisioning and a mobile-first user design. “The intersection of those two things is the tipping point for small business financial services for the next while,” he added.
BFS Capital is finding that the younger generation is well equipped with technological skillsets, noted Ruddock, pointing to the Universty of Toronto and University of Waterloo as two of the best schools in North America for tech talent.
National Business Capital & Services Expands into Cannabis Funding with CannaBusiness Financing Solution
October 15, 2019
Today National Business Capital & Services (NBC&S) announced it has begun serving cannabis companies. Through its new program, CannaBusiness Financing Solution, NBC&S is now accepting applications for loans starting at a minimum of $10,000 from firms in the industry that are over one year old.
“The CannaBusiness Financial Solution will allow business owners to seamlessly obtain the capital they need, and allocate funding toward either hiring new employees, purchasing inventory, marketing strategies, or any other business need right away, without government regulations hindering growth opportunities or having to give up equity,” explained NBC&S President Joseph Camberato. “We’re not a bank and the lenders we work with aren’t banks either, so it falls into a different area of commercial lending.”
CannaBusiness is available in the 33 states where cannabis is legal, be it for medicinal or recreational uses, as well as in Canada.
“It’s a rapidly growing space, no pun intended,” joked Camberato when asked about the differences in funding cannabis companies compared to the industries NBC&S has served in its 12 years of business. “It would still be underwritten, just like one of our normal businesses. But we’re definitely going to want to know a little bit more about the business and understand what exactly they’re doing, how they’re operating, and exactly what are they’re focused on.” They’ll also examine if the business is in compliance with state laws. Qualifying cannabis companies must be in business for at least 1 year, with a minimum of $10K in monthly revenue. There is no minimum FICO score requirement.
While it’s not the first funder for cannabis companies, NBC&S views the move as a step in the right direction to “get ahead of the curve” according to Camberato. “We’re living through a modern-day prohibition, I think in 20 years we’ll look back on it and talk about it with our grandchildren and be like, ‘wow’ … I don’t think people realize how big of a deal this really is, but it is a business and it is another industry that has bloomed in front of us, again no pun intended. I think it’s fascinating that we get to witness this and that we’re really at the forefront of it and helping folks get the funds they need to grow.”
Jumping off from the politically charged word of ‘prohibition,’ NBC&S’ Vice President of Marketing, T.J. Muro, noted that he believed cannabis legislation to be one of the few issues that can be bipartisan, saying, “Out of everything today in our political climate, I think it’s the one thing that has unified people in the political parties. The liberal side appreciates the cultural influence and significance there, and then on the more conservative side it’s the tax revenue.”
The upcoming Senate vote on the SAFE Banking Act will put this theory to the test. The bill, which would allow the cannabis industry wider access to banking, has already passed the House.
Thinking Capital, Equifax Create Canadian Small Business Credit Grades
July 10, 2018
Equifax and Thinking Capital today announced the launch of BillMarket, a service that will now provide Canadian small businesses with a credit grade, A through E. CEO and cofounder of Thinking Capital Jeff Mitelman told AltFinanceDaily this is revolutionary because, up until now, a Canadian small business’ creditworthiness has usually been based on the personal credit score of the small business owner.
“BillMarket creates a new language of credit for small business in Canada,” Mitelman said. “For the first time, there is a practical way to talk about and put a dollar value on small business credit in Canada. BillMarket expands the purchasing power for Canadian SMBs and eliminates friction in the supply chain.”
Equifax offers this new credit grade for free, and simultaneously, a small business owner is offered a supply chain financing deal by Thinking Capital. Specifically, if a small business owes money to a vendor in 30 days, Thinking Capital can turn that 30 day invoice into a 120 day invoice. Thinking Capital pays the small business’ vendor and the small business has 120 days to pay Thinking Capital. There are fees associated with this, which are based on the small business’ credit grade, but a small business can simply use Equifax’s credit grade and seek funding elsewhere.
“BillMarket represents a cash flow revolution for the Canadian small business market,” he said.
Traditionally, Thinking Capital provides an MCA product, which it calls Flexible, as well as a term product, which it calls Fixed. The company provides funding up to $300,000 to small to medium sized Canadian businesses. Clients must be in business for at least six months and have average monthly sales of at least $7,000. The funder was acquired in March by Toronto-based Purpose Financial, but it still uses the Thinking Capital name.
Founded in 2006, Thinking Capital employees roughly 200 people and has offices in Montreal and Toronto.
Thinking Capital Acquired by Canadian Finance Firm Purpose Financial
March 12, 2018
Thinking Capital, a leader in the fintech lending industry in Canada, was acquired last week by Canadian finance company, Purpose Financial, based in Toronto.
“Under the Purpose Financial umbrella, our time to market on product innovation and funding capacity will be greatly amplified,” said Jeff Mitelman, CEO and co-founder of Thinking Capital.
Mitelman, who co-founded Thinking Capital in 2006, has long been an advocate for improving the way small business credit is evaluated and communicated in Canada.
“The challenge in Canada is that our lending institutions historically either don’t lend to small business or don’t lend to enough of our small businesses,” Mitelman told AltFinanceDaily. “And that’s driven by the fact that so many of the measures of small business credit worthiness simply don’t exist. Our credit bureaus don’t report on it, there aren’t metrics or scores unique to small business, and most significantly, small business credit has never been attached to retail or institutional conduits for funding.”
This is where Purpose Financial comes in. Mitelman believes that Purpose Financial’s investment arm and its relationship with Omers, a large Canadian pension fund, will provide small businesses with “access to conduits that historically small businesses have never been able to access.”
Thinking Capital provides an MCA product, which it calls Flexible, as well as a term product, which it calls Fixed. It also helps power loans provided by large companies like Staples.
Purpose Financial has three verticals: Investment Management (retail and institutional), Digital Technology, and Capital / Funding.
“Thinking Capital is a clear leader in the small to medium-sized business lending space…” said Som Seif, CEO of Purpose Financial. “[And] this acquisition brings together leading origination, asset management, and technology platforms as a unified entity, and enables us to bolster our product capabilities and optimize the technology, distribution, and funding model of our combined business.”
