Rapital Launched to Support SMEs With Challenging Credit Situations
October 14, 2024A new Australia online lender has today been launched in response to evolving SME funding needs.
Rapital is set to transform the financial landscape to support both brokers and SME businesses facing difficulty in securing funding from existing lenders and banks.
Rapital will focus on offering a direct route for clients with challenging credit situations, such as low credit scores, with loans ranging between $5,000 and $250,000. With a focus on offering fast funding, Rapital aims to make decisions in as little as three hours so SMEs can access the cash boost they need quickly.
Access to funding remains an evergreen challenge for Australia’s SME community. According to a survey by Small Business Loans Australia, 90% of businesses indicated they would exercise caution in borrowing more money in 2024. Despite this caution, business loan demand has spiked, as reported by the Australian Financial Review. Rapital has been launched to help bridge the financing gap, providing SMEs that have been denied funding from traditional lenders with the essential cash boost they need to thrive.
Rapital’s ambition is to help turn a “no” into a “yes” for SMEs needing rapid and flexible financing solutions. The service promises an easy, transparent process with quick funding, empowering businesses to thrive and grow. In these challenging operating conditions, it is vital that smaller businesses have access to rapid and flexible capital. Rapital will offer a much-needed financial lifeline to the business profiles and industries that are often rejected by banks and other SME lenders.
About Rapital
Rapital’s mission is to empower businesses of all sizes, credit backgrounds and industries by providing brokers and SMEs with funding solutions tailored to meet the real-world challenges they encounter.
For media inquiries, please contact:
Rapital Media Team
Email: info@rapital.com.au
Website: http://www.rapital.com.au
How Cesar Valero Won The Tournament And Gets Deals Done
October 2, 2024
When Cesar Valero, Business Development Executive at Spartan Capital, sat down at one of the starting poker tables late last month to participate in the kick-off tournament for B2B Finance Expo, it had been almost exactly a year since he last played. His colleague Ryan Capella had finished second that time, which coincidentally had also been for a business event in Las Vegas. But here at B2B in 2024, the Spartan team was competing against a mix of players eager to show off their skills, some of whom play semi-professionally on the side.
According to Valero, they didn’t do any kind of practice ahead of time. “Frank [the CEO] just said ‘make sure you represent,'” he said. And after two and a half hours of impressive play that’s exactly what he did. The dealer and a hired pit boss keeping an eye on all the cards declared Valero the winner where he took home the grand prize gold bracelet and other goodies.
“We were actually really happy because we noticed that–obviously we celebrated a little bit–and then noticed after we’re like, ‘of the top four positions of the last two years, we [Spartan] have two’ that’s pretty good,” Valero said.
But more importantly, at the industry’s largest conference of the year, everyone suddenly knew who Valero was if they didn’t before.
“You can flat out tell them the best marketing at B2B was to win the poker tournament,” Valero said. People came up to him throughout the next two days calling him out by name. “Hey, Cesar!” they shouted, after having heard about his win.
And being the guy everybody wants to talk to is pretty much his job anyway. Spartan Capital provides revenue based financing and works with a large number of referral partners. Valero’s day-to-day is typically spent communicating with ISOs, whether it be phone calls or Zoom calls or in-office meetings, he is catering to what they need and trying to get deals funded. When asked if having a relationship with an ISO is an important part of the job, he said it’s the whole job.
“We’re a fair funder,” he said of Spartan. “We really don’t snub anybody out. Whether you’re the biggest guy in the space or the smallest guy in the space, we’re going to do our best to give you the best customer service we can. Our reps, pretty much nobody is a brand new rep. Everybody’s got experience. They know what they’re talking about.”
“Most deals are pretty straightforward,” he said, “but you always have that 10,15,20% that need a little more love…so it’s a fast paced environment and just try to keep up with it, make sure we’re doing the right service to our customers whether it be an ISO or a [merchant].”
Overall, Valero feels like the industry is on a strong trajectory, especially with tech and e-commerce platforms having rushed in to offer similar funding products to their customers.
“If they’re in it, they see the demand right?” he exclaimed, “and if they’re putting out billions of dollars like I see every quarter in press releases from Amazon or from PayPal or from one of the big players, they’re out there and they’re creating buzz… so better quality borrowers will be flowing in because the need is there across the board.”
Valero isn’t exaggerating about the fast pace. After having gone from the flow of deals to Vegas to even more deals, he couldn’t afford to let our interview about his big win go over the allotted time.
“I got about an hour and 15 minutes to the wire cut-off,” he said emphatically while thanking me for the call. “Let me see if I can do a couple more deals!”
BriteCap Financial Announces New CEO
September 16, 2024BriteCap Financial LLC (“BriteCap”), a leading non-bank lender providing small businesses with fast, convenient financing alternatives such as working capital loans, announced today the appointment of Richard Henderson as the company’s new CEO.
“I’m proud to see Rick take the helm at a time when BriteCap is poised to bring financial solutions to the market at scale,” said outgoing CEO Sri Kaza. “His experience and relationships across the industry will open the door for many more small businesses.”
BriteCap became a member of the growing family of companies under the North Mill Equipment Finance (NMEF) umbrella in 2023. “We are thrilled to have Rick join as the leader of BriteCap,” reported David C. Lee, Chairman and CEO, NMEF. “His two plus decades of success in equipment finance and working capital lending dovetail well with our strategy to offer comprehensive capital solutions for small and medium sized businesses. In particular, we look forward to developing unique solutions and programs for our key referral partners in partnership with BriteCap.”
“I’m excited to join BriteCap and lead such a respected, values-driven company,” said Rick Henderson, CEO, BriteCap Financial. “BriteCap has built an exceptional, tech-enabled funding platform that blends the speed and convenience of self-service with the expertise of a supportive team, making it easier and faster for small and medium-sized businesses to access the capital they need to grow. I look forward to collaborating with the BriteCap team and our strategic referral partners to build on this legacy, developing innovative solutions that empower America’s business owners and the finance brokers who support them.”
BriteCap operates from offices in North Hollywood, CA and Las Vegas, NV.
About BriteCap Financial
BriteCap Financial is a leading provider of working capital for America’s small business owners. Since 2003, BriteCap combines technology, non-traditional credit algorithms to provide fast, convenient and affordable working capital direct to businesses or through their broker network. For more information about becoming a partner, visit britecap.com/become-a-partner.
About North Mill Equipment Finance
NMEF originates and services small to mid-ticket equipment leases and loans, ranging from $15,000 to $2,500,000 in value. A broker-centric private lender, the company accepts A – C credit qualities and finances transactions for many asset categories including construction, transportation, vocational, medical, manufacturing, printing, franchise, renovation, janitorial and material handling equipment. NMEF is majority owned by an affiliate of InterVest Capital Partners. The company’s headquarters are in Norwalk, CT, with regional offices in Irvine, CA, and Voorhees NJ.
Media Contacts:
For BriteCap:
David Schneider
Vice President of Marketing
BriteCap Financial, www.BriteCap.com
david.schneider@britecap.com
954-494-1606
For NMEF:
Don Cosenza
Chief Marketing Officer
NMEF, www.nmef.com
dcosenza@nmef.com
203-354-1710
North Mill Announces $404 Million Term Securitization
September 3, 2024SEPTEMBER 3, 2024, NORWALK, CT – North Mill Equipment Finance LLC (“NMEF”), a leading independent commercial equipment lender located in Norwalk, Connecticut, announced the closing of its eighth asset backed securitization (ABS), NMEF Funding 2024-A (“NMEF 2024-A”). The $404 million transaction is NMEF’s first ABS transaction this year, bringing the total ABS proceeds raised by NMEF since inception to $2.3 billion. NMEF 2024-A features a strong, diversified collateral pool resulting from NMEF’s recent adjustments to its pricing and risk framework.
“The interest in the NMEF shelf continues to grow. We received 45 orders from 32 unique investors, including 12 first time buyers, that drove demand to a ~3.5x oversubscribed level and allowed for continued tightening of spreads from launch to pricing,” said NMEF’s President and Chief Operating Officer, Mark Bonanno.
Mitch Tobak, NMEF’s VP of Corporate Development added, “NMEF was proud to present a strong collateral pool to investors, with a balanced mix that no longer contains long-haul trucking within the top five equipment types, along with the highest weighted average FICO of any NMEF issuance to date. Transportation collateral represents less than a third of the total pool, a testament to NMEF’s ability to originate profitable paper in a variety of industries. We are grateful for the continued support of our referral partner network and the ~14K active borrowers they have referred to NMEF.”
About NMEF
NMEF originates and services small to mid-ticket equipment leases and loans, ranging from $15,000 to $2,500,000 in value. A broker-centric private lender, the company accepts A – C credit qualities and finances transactions for many asset categories including construction, transportation, vocational, medical, manufacturing, printing, franchise, renovation, janitorial and material handling equipment. NMEF is majority owned by an affiliate of InterVest Capital Partners. The company’s headquarters are in Norwalk, CT, with regional offices in Irvine, CA, and Voorhees NJ. For more information, visit www.nmef.com. One of NMEF’s controlled affiliates, BriteCap Financial LLC, is a leading non-bank lender providing small businesses with fast, convenient financing alternatives such as working capital loans since 2003 from offices in North Hollywood, CA and Las Vegas, NV. For more information, visit www.britecap.com.
They Offered to Reduce My MCA Payments. I Played Along.
September 3, 2024
It started when I got a cold text that said my merchant cash advances could be reduced by 80%. I didn’t have any advances but was intrigued by the audacity of the offer. REDUCE THEM BY EIGHTY PERCENT!
“Ok,” I thought to myself, “I’ll bite to see where this goes.”
I replied and was assigned a rep via text who introduced himself by name, Mark.
I told Mark I believed his offer to be a scam and sent him a link to an article (that was literally on AltFinanceDaily) in which someone making similar offers had been arrested by the FBI. I was 100% confident that he would disappear but he was undeterred.
“Those were shady companies,” Mark said, assuring me he had nothing to do with them. I wondered if Mark had caught on to who I was because he seemed eager to convince me he was legit. He told me that I’d still have to pay my advances in full but that he would just get the payments for them reduced. That seemed unusually tame compared to what I’d heard about these type of encounters with “debt relief” companies but Mark kept talking.
By signing up with them I’d be assigned a lawyer who would have “leverage” over my MCA provider due to them likely being in default on their own contract. He explained that they were always in breach for failing to reduce the daily payments (a likely reference to reconciliation clauses). Mark’s fee for helping me take advantage of this, the cost of which was not mentioned, would be included in my new regular payments they’d negotiate for me.
Just as I was beginning to realize that I’d be on the hook for paying them for their service on top of apparently still paying my advances, the messages over texts stopped, and he tried to only continue the conversation by phone, which I avoided.
From there robocalls hit my phone 4-5x per day as they attempted to reel me back in until they eventually tried texts again. When they did the offer had changed from them being able to reduce my payments by 80% to only 50%. Weird. Nevertheless, I wanted to get back to where we had left off, finding out the cost of this service, of which I now learned included legal representation by an attorney and a separate case manager. It sounded like it would be very expensive for me and I let him know my concerns. If Mark had known who he was actually speaking to before, the attempt to play it off now had been forgotten.
“Our program is not designed to cost you any additional money,” Mark said. “We go after unpaid fees and interest. You will never have to pay us out of pocket.”
And so that was the pitch, wordplay designed to make it appear the service was free and I would never have to pay them.
The website they referred me to included obviously fake testimonials with stock photos. They were “Trusted”, “Approved” and had been seen on various TV networks. It promises to stop withdrawals from funding companies and that their “in-house licensed attorneys” based in Florida and New York will take care of everything. The 7 month old website, which lists no business address, also claims the team has a decade of experience while the legal entity itself does not appear to exist, at least not in all the states I checked.
As I attempted to track down anything about this company I could find, a breakthrough led me to an address in Miami, which as fate would have it was home to another debt relief company targeting businesses with merchant cash advances. The website is similar. They are “Trusted”, “Approved” and seen on TV. They can also improve cash flow by up to 80%. What a coincidence. The owner of this one also has a colorful background with the law. Although I was not able to fully confirm that this company is the alter-ego of the other, I learn that this second company was just sued in April for allegedly absconding with a merchant’s funds it claimed was being used to pay off MCAs. In another instance the debt relief company is suing a merchant for the recovery of over $400,000, the sum of which it claims was its fee for trying to reduce a merchant’s MCA payments. It would seem that such work is not so free after all.
As my phone continues to ring and ring with offers to reduce my MCA payments, I decide to disengage.
“Sean, how many loans do you have?” Mark resumes. “Sean we will reduce your payments by at least 50%, let’s discuss.”
I ignore him. When he tries me again, he tells me he can reduce the payments by 80%. Then again later by 50%. He never tells me why it changes. His last message more than several months later is a return to the same script.
“Sean, Do you have MCAs hurting your cash flow?”
I’m pretty sure that he can’t be trusted. If your sales drop, you should call your funding company to discuss and stay away from shady pitches like this.
MoneyThumb Acquired, Ryan Campbell Takes Over as CEO, and What to Expect
August 29, 2024Ryan Campbell will take over as CEO of MoneyThumb as part of the deal announced earlier today. MoneyThumb is being acquired by an investment group led by Iron Creek Partners LLC that includes Main Street Capital Corporation (NYSE: MAIN). Campbell was for a long time MoneyThumb’s EVP of Sales & Marketing. Ralph Mayer, MoneyThumb’s founder, will move on to an advisory role and retain his board seat.
MoneyThumb is widely known in the small business finance industry for two signature products it offers, PDF Insights, which reads and analyzes financial documents, and Thumbprint, which assesses whether documents have been manipulated and could be fraudulent.
The idea for the company, which originated over a decade ago, came to Ralph Mayer when someone had asked him a basic question, could he convert the data in a PDF file?
“I had been in software my entire career. I was an angel investor and I was looking to get into something a little bit different,” Mayer said of the time when the idea for MoneyThumb came to him. “Originally we got started selling software to accountants.”
MoneyThumb soon encountered a field that seemed to handle an unlimited number of PDFs and was ripe for the product they were building. It was the MCA & revenue based financing industry. MoneyThumb has made a name for itself in it ever since.
Ryan Campbell told AltFinanceDaily that it’s actually quite common for funding companies to be on the receiving end of manipulated bank statements and that about 6% of the documents they analyze on average end up meeting or surpassing the scoring threshold they’ve built to indicate manipulation.
“It happens a whole lot more than what you would think,” Campbell said.
One major trend they’ve noticed is that before covid 90% of fraudulently submitted bank statements did not even have financial columns that reconciled numerically whereas now most fraudulent ones today do. Today’s fraud, because of how good scammers have gotten, may not even be noticeable to the naked eye which is why their technology has become even more important.
Campbell said that as part of the acquisition it will be business as usual with their clients. The company is keeping its name and Iron Creek is going to continue letting them do what they do best. MoneyThumb is used by both funders and ISOs and Campbell is regularly seen on the industry trade show circuit.
“This acquisition underscores MoneyThumb’s proven technology and strong industry demand, and supports our long-term growth objectives,” Campbell said in an official statement. “This partnership marks an exciting milestone for our company and with the support of Iron Creek, we are well-poised to accelerate our growth, continue to deliver exceptional software solutions for our customers and help lenders manage risk and deliver more capital faster to small businesses.”
Velocity Capital Group Welcomes Jesse Guzman as New Chief Revenue Officer
August 28, 2024
Cedarhust, New York – 08/28/2024 – Velocity Capital Group is thrilled to announce the appointment of Jesse Guzman as its new Chief Revenue Officer (CRO). With a distinguished career in revenue leadership, Jesse brings a wealth of experience and a proven track record of driving growth and innovation in the financial services industry.
Jesse Guzman joins Velocity Capital Group after serving as Chief Revenue Officer at Nexi from 2020 to 2024, where he played a pivotal role in the company’s growth and successful rebranding. Before his tenure at Nexi, Jesse was the Director at Arcarius LLC from 2017 to 2020, where he honed his expertise in financial strategy and revenue optimization.
In his new role at Velocity Capital Group, Jesse will leverage his extensive industry experience to lead the company’s revenue strategies, focusing on expanding funding options for merchants and enhancing support for Independent Sales Organizations (ISOs). His fresh ideas and innovative approach are expected to propel Velocity Capital Group to new heights, further solidifying its position as a leader in the alternative finance space.
“We are incredibly excited to welcome Jesse Guzman to the Velocity Capital Group team,” said Jay Avigdor, President & CEO of Velocity Capital Group. “Jesse’s deep understanding of the industry, combined with his visionary leadership, will be instrumental in helping us achieve our ambitious goals. We are confident that his expertise will enable us to provide even more funding to merchants and offer our ISOs the best service they’ve ever experienced.”
Jesse Guzman expressed his enthusiasm about joining the company, stating, “Velocity Capital Group has an outstanding reputation for innovation and excellence in the alternative finance industry. I am excited to bring my experience and fresh perspective to the team and to contribute to the company’s continued success. Together, we will explore new opportunities to better serve our clients and partners.”
About Velocity Capital Group
Velocity Capital Group is a leading provider of revenue-based financing solutions for small and medium-sized businesses. Leveraging advanced analytics and a deep understanding of the SMB sector, Velocity Capital Group offers tailored funding solutions that drive sustainable growth. With a commitment to innovation and customer service, the company partners with Independent Sales Organizations (ISOs) to deliver exceptional value to clients nationwide.
Media Contact:
Bogdan Klubuk
Marketing Director
Velocity Capital Group
Bogdan@velocitycg.com
www.Velocitycg.com
When $10 Million Was Lost In MCA Deals
August 19, 2024David Roitblat is the founder and CEO of Better Accounting Solutions, an accounting firm based in New York City, and a leading authority in specialized accounting for merchant cash advance companies.To connect with David or schedule a call about working with Better Accounting Solutions, email david@betteraccountingsolutions.com.
In the high-stakes world of merchant cash advances (MCA), trust is a precious commodity, and when that trust is shattered by a longtime partner, the fallout can be catastrophic. Imagine investing tens of millions in what you believe to be a thriving MCA business, only to discover someone you know is siphoning funds through an intricate web of deceit. This isn’t a hypothetical scenario—it’s a grim reality many MCA investors face, and it serves as a stark warning to us all.
Here’s one story from a couple of years back that an industry friend of mine told me:
The betrayal began innocuously enough. The investor trusted the MCA company he was syndicating deals with well, and the owner seemed competent and trustworthy. But beneath this carefully cultivated facade lurked a sinister scheme. This owner had also secretly established his own ISO and collection agency. With access to insider knowledge and an unchecked commission structure, he was in a prime position to execute a brazen and ongoing theft.
The owner submitted deals to his own funding company through his ISO and then funded them with syndication from investors. Then the deals would default. For months, the ISO maintained an exceptional high default rate. When the investor asked the owner what was going on, the owner would express his own puzzlement. He would show his syndicators how deals looked like they were progressing well initially, before they would inevitably crash out and default. Confident that they were backing the right man for the job, the syndicators kept on giving him money. Yet these deals were doomed from the start and designed to fail. By intentionally backing poor investments, he set the stage for his collection agency to step in once the deals inevitably defaulted.
The brilliance—and the horror—of his scheme lay in its simplicity. He manipulated the commission structure, securing an arrangement where he received full commission if a deal stayed active for just over a week. The deals only needed to appear stable for a short period before crumbling. Once the facade of success faded, the deals were swiftly handed over to his collection agency, ensuring he reaped the benefits from every angle.
In effect, he was stealing from his investors and partners in four ways. The first, he was stealing part of their investments before he ever put it into deals, and then of the deals that worked out, he skimmed off as well. The rest he put it into purposefully bad deals- after collecting a quick commission on- and then promptly stole from his own collections firm to top it all off.
As I delved into this case, the warning signs became glaringly apparent. Unusual commission arrangements should have raised immediate red flags. A commission structure that disproportionately rewards short-term success is ripe for exploitation. Moreover, conflicts of interest, like owning related businesses, should never be overlooked. The funder’s ownership of an ISO and a collection agency created an inherent conflict, one that he deftly exploited.
Another alarming sign was the pattern of poor-performing deals. Consistently funding bad deals isn’t just bad luck; it’s a symptom of deeper issues. High turnover in collections, especially when tied to the same individual, is another glaring indicator. A deeper investigation into these patterns could have unearthed the fraud much sooner.
To identify potential issues with your own ISOs, run a report over a three-month period detailing the total dollar amount and number of deals funded by each ISO. Compare these figures to the defaults from each ISO. If the percentage of defaults from an ISO significantly exceeds their contribution to your portfolio, it indicates a potential problem. Additionally, track the recovery rate from your collection firm; less than 25% recovery may signal issues with the contracts, merchants, or the collection firm itself. Conduct periodic audits to ensure that funded merchants are legitimate and not misrepresented.
Preventing such betrayal demands vigilance and a multi-faceted approach. Background checks should be thorough and updated regularly to catch any emerging conflicts of interest. Transparent and standardized commission policies are essential, avoiding complex arrangements that can be manipulated. Regular audits and monitoring can serve as an early warning system. Advanced analytics and an industry CRM such as Orgmeter or MCA Track can detect irregular patterns, flagging potential issues before they escalate. Beyond the technical measures, fostering a culture of honesty and transparency is vital, and employees should be trained to recognize and report suspicious activities.
This true story of betrayal within this company serves as a dramatic reminder of the dangers lurking within our businesses. Trust, once broken, is difficult to rebuild. By remaining vigilant and proactive, we can protect our companies from those who seek to exploit our trust for their gain. With the right measures, we can safeguard our investments and ensure the integrity of our industry.
