A Broker Diversifies With Suite of Value-Adds
August 8, 2024
Like many broker shops these days, Connecticut-based Sharpe Capital is offering more than just a revenue-based financing product. Owned by CEO Brendan Lynch who has been funding deals and boarding credit card processing accounts for more than 15 years, the company is now looking much deeper into business owners’ needs through a whole new set of diagnostic questions like whether or not they have a written will, access to a lawyer, possession of a firearm, or ownership in real estate.
The latter on that list, real estate, is becoming more familiar in the small business finance community. Sharpe Capital, for example, added mortgages to its product set about 18 months ago.
“When we talk to anybody on the phone and they start asking questions, ‘oh, what kind of programs do you have? What are the rates?’ now we’ll always say, ‘well, the cheapest way and the most affordable way to get money is, even though rates are higher on mortgages and that stuff right now than they were in the past few years, it’s still the cheapest way.'” Lynch said. “And then what we’ll try to do is explain that it’s going to take a while. ‘How much do you need to get through the next two months while we work this up for you,’ right? Try to get the long term funding going for them and the short term solution all in one.”
More recently, however, the company has added a bundle of services that include things like identity theft protection, legal consultations, will writing, and more. In one example, Lynch said that a merchant disclosed that an IRS audit had slowed down their ability to continue the application process with them and he realized they actually had a solution for that.
“One of the things [this partnered service] covers here is audit services,” Lynch said. “They’ll give you up to 25 hours and walk you through an audit from the IRS. So it was easy. I was like, ‘hey, yeah, let me help you out right now. We signed him up right away.'”
Lynch says that for now, since it’s all still new for them, these value-adds are typically being proposed after the customer onboards for funding but that he’s open to switching it around.
“We’re definitely trying to figure out a way to approach it as the frontend as well,” he said. “The way these leads are being bought and sold so fast and rapidly, you’re fighting with 50-60 different brokers on every deal, you know? … So, we’re really just trying to find something that separates us.”
Lynch argued that in a market where a lot of brokers are essentially offering the same thing, just being personally remembered later on when it comes time for funding again can make all the difference and that being the guy who helped them draft a will for sixty bucks will probably stay fresh in their mind.
“It definitely stands out,” Lynch said. “It definitely opens up conversations where you’re going to get a little more personal with them and build a closer relationship because you’re going to start asking, ‘Are you married?’ Yeah, I know maybe that’s part of people’s sales pitch, but a lot of times we’re just so focused on getting you an offer fast and getting you funded fast, you kind of don’t have time to get into all that, so that afterwards getting to really build the relationship seems to really be working.”
North Mill Sets New Monthly Origination Records in July
August 5, 2024August 5, 2024, NORWALK, CT – North Mill Equipment Finance LLC (“NMEF”), a leading independent commercial equipment lessor headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut, announced today that the company had a record-breaking month in July as funded volume surged to more than $56 million, an increase in loan and lease originations of 33% from the same period last year.
“We are firing on all cylinders and well poised to continue our growth trajectory,” said David C. Lee, Chairman and CEO, North Mill. “We have a strong capital base, a loyal and ever-expanding group of referral partners who consider NMEF their primary lender, and a diversified portfolio that helps us mitigate the economic woes that plague specific industries like the trucking sector.”
According to Lee, NMEF has been steadily rebalancing its book of business, providing its referral partners with more opportunities to finance a variety of equipment. “Historically, trucking related collateral, both local and long-haul, represented an average of 40% of our originations whereas today it embodies just 15% of what we finance,” he said. “Medical, franchise, and construction collectively now represent almost 60% of our funding volume.” In another pivotal move to diversify, NMEF has grown its vendor program in partnership with referral partners, including banks, captives and other funding sources. In addition to the high watermark in originations, the company’s weighted average FICO reached 735, weighted average yields are north of 13%, and submission approval rates are approaching 60%.
While many equipment lenders have reduced or even ceased funding operations over the past year, NMEF has been selectively adding to its team. Joining the company as an Assistant Vice President, Relationship Manager, is Mary E. Armstrong, CLFP who brings over twenty years of referral partner relationships while holding similar roles at Financial Pacific, Marlin, and Canon. “We are very excited to welcome Mary to the NMEF family of companies,” said Paul Cheslock, VP of Customer Relations, NMEF. “Her reputation is stellar. Brokers, customers, and colleagues alike have commented on her talent, innate sales ability, and professionalism.” Ms. Armstrong reported “making the decision to join NMEF was not difficult. For quite some time, I’ve been aware of NMEF’s reputation as a progressive leader and trailblazer.”
Also joining NMEF is Zacchary Lee, Sr. Analyst, Corporate Development, who will assist the finance team with budgeting, portfolio analytics, and the execution of strategic initiatives. An honors graduate of The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, Mr. Lee brings 5 years of experience in financial services.
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, technology, 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 its main office in Las Vegas, NV. For more information, visit www.britecap.com.
New Lender Designed to Support Underserved SMEs
July 23, 2024A new specialist 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 poor credit, existing loans, CCJs and defaults 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 is an evergreen issue for the UK’s vital SME community, with many struggling to get approval from traditional lenders. Indeed, according to the National Association of Commercial Finance Brokers’ (NACFB) annual lender and broker survey, 32% of new clients successfully funded by its members last year had been previously denied funding elsewhere – a 3% increase from 2022. Rapital has been launched to help close the gap and enable SMEs who might have been denied financing from traditional lenders to get the cash boost they need to succeed.
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 and same-day 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.co.uk
Phone: 0161 884 0767
Website: rapital.co.uk
How The PPP Reporting Oversight Harms MCA Companies
July 18, 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.
deBanked’s recent story covering the news about how the Small Business Administration (SBA) failed to report many Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan charge-offs to credit agencies is a major concern for merchant cash advance companies.
As the AltFinanceDaily article explained, a new report from the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) found that the SBA did not report 37% of PPP loan charge-offs, and missed deadlines 97% of the time. The OIG report stated that the SBA’s automated system was supposed to report these loans, but it did not always work correctly. As a result, many delinquent borrowers could still get new loans because their bad debt wasn’t reported. The report also pointed out that a large portion of early PPP loan charge-offs were linked to potential fraud, which makes the lack of reporting even more serious.
This oversight could cause real problems for our industry. As an accountant working with MCA companies for over a decade, I understand firsthand how important accurate credit reporting is for making sound and fully informed decisions on which merchants our clients choose to invest in and help advance.
For MCA companies, this incomplete reporting leaves a critical gap in the information that funders rely on. Without accurate credit information, it’s harder to assess the risk of advancing capital to any particular merchant, which can lead to higher chances of defaults and financial losses when you don’t have a complete history that includes any times they’d skipped payments or defaulted. The missing data from the SBA means MCA companies might unknowingly fund high-risk businesses, which ultimately harms the cash advance company itself.
To work through this situation, funders need to take stock of how they evaluate prospective merchants to work with.
First, it’s important to do thorough background checks using multiple sources of information. Relying on just one credit report isn’t enough, especially now that we know there might be gaps. Cross-referencing data from various sources will provide a more complete picture of a merchant’s credit history.
We can also require merchants to provide more documentation and financial information before approving funding deals, removing a complete reliance on credit reporting agencies that have now proven themselves fallible. Pairing up the complete history that they provide along with their credit reports, and continuous tracking of the deal on a strong internal MCA CRM that lets you know of any hiccups, is a proactive approach that helps in making informed funding decisions.
It’s vital to develop strong risk management strategies. This might include setting stricter funding criteria, diversifying the types of businesses we lend to, and keeping enough reserves to cover potential losses. By being cautious and prepared, we can protect our companies from the financial risks posed by incomplete credit reporting, and eliminate our over reliance on that one source of information.
Let’s use this opportunity to ensure we are making the best funding decisions possible, and continue to have healthy companies built on stable foundations.
eBay Brings Back Revenue Based Financing Product
July 12, 2024eBay announced that Liberis had been onboarded as one of its “Seller Capital” partners this week, making it the second official partner after Funding Circle (which was recently acquired). Liberis, homegrown in the UK, expanded to the US in 2020 and offers a revenue based financing product described by eBay as a “Business Cash Advance.” While eBay has partnered with similar companies in the UK for years, eBay customers in the US have seen this before.
In 2010, for example, Kabbage was arguably the first company to offer revenue based financing to eBay customers, which AltFinanceDaily first covered 13 years ago. And they had it all to themselves until PayPal began to muscle its way in with a similar product starting in 2013. Given that eBay owned PayPal, PayPal held a distinct advantage until the two companies split in 2015. Still, PayPal continued to be the default payment service for eBay until 2018.
Kabbage continued to thrive anyway, evolving beyond the platform at least until covid when Kabbage suddenly imploded and was sold to American Express. PayPal’s working capital product also continued to thrive at least until 2023 when it announced a dramatic pullback after elevated charge-offs.
The result is that in 2024, eBay sellers can now look toward getting funding via Liberis.
“As a pioneer in ecommerce and the home to small businesses in more than 190 markets, eBay understands the challenges small businesses encounter in securing fast, flexible and transparent financing,” said Avritti Khandurie Mittal, VP & General Manager of Global Payments and Financial Services at eBay in the official announcement. “eBay Seller Capital is aimed at fueling our sellers’ growth by providing them with tailored financing solutions that meet the unique needs of their businesses. The addition of Business Cash Advance to our suite of offerings in partnership with Liberis enables us to expand capital availability for our sellers on flexible terms – when they need it the most.”
“We understand the unique challenges eBay sellers face when securing financing through traditional means,” adds Rob Straathof, CEO of Liberis. “Through eBay Seller Capital, Liberis will empower sellers with access to fast and responsible financing. We’re thrilled to partner with eBay to support eBay sellers to operate and grow their businesses.”
FundKite Launches Merchant Services Division
July 11, 2024Miami, Florida – July 11, 2024- FundKite, a leading provider of financial solutions for small businesses, today announced the launch of FundKite Merchant Services, a new payment processing division that expands the company’s suite of products, offering low fee merchant services and quick access to their funds.
Small businesses in today’s economic climate are seeking capital, quality payment processing, lower costs, and real time knowledgeable customer support partners – particularly amid an uncertain economic future, tightened cash flow, and limited access to traditional financing.
FundKite Merchant Services provides a comprehensive suite of solutions for small and medium sized businesses, including competitive rates, industry veterans with unparalleled expertise, and top-notch service and support. Supporting all major credit card networks, FundKite Merchant Services equips small business owners with best-in-class payment technology to better facilitate credit and debit card transactions with reduced fees, daily financial reporting, acceptance of other forms of electronic payments through secure, state-of-the-art point of sales systems, check guarantee, and more.
With the new division, FundKite expands on its mission of empowering small businesses with accessible services to simplify their finances and allow them to save on processing costs. Additionally, businesses that choose FundKite Merchant Services benefit from integrated support with customized funding solutions, aiding in the management of cash flow and working capital.
“Given today’s challenging economic climate, high interest rates, strained cash flow and increased difficulty in meeting lending criteria from traditional financial institutions, it’s more crucial than ever to help Main Street American thrive, by offering savings through unique payment solutions and alternative financing options,” said Alex Shvarts, CEO of FundKite. “These businesses are evaluating and upgrading their outdated, legacy payment processing providers. We’re seeing an incredible demand for our products and are proud to offer small businesses a wider suite of solutions, so they not only survive but grow.”
To date, FundKite has processed over 200,000 business funding applications across the country. FundKite’s continued expansion reflects its ongoing mission to serve as a trusted partner for entrepreneurs seeking financing. By offering flexible funding options, personalized service, and prioritizing long-term relationships, FundKite remains dedicated to supporting entrepreneurial ventures across the nation with their revenue-based financing solution, and now merchant services division.
To learn more about FundKite Merchant Services, please visit here.
About FundKite
FundKite is among the fastest-growing fintech companies, introducing a unique approach to the longstanding financing industry. Utilizing a boutique funding style, FundKite provides businesses of all sizes, ranging from local small shops to major global firms, with a flexible array of products and services tailored to fit their individual financial needs. Positioned as one of the fastest-growing firms in the small business funding industry, FundKite offers up to $2,000,000 in working capital for each qualified business.
Media Contact
Fundkite@5WPR.com
Law Firm Sued Over “Debt Relief” Practices
July 9, 2024Another alleged “debt relief” law firm is under fire by a small business lender. This time the lender is National Funding and their latest lawsuit names not only a borrower that breached a loan agreement as a defendant but also a New York based law firm named J.S. Fritzon Law Firm, P.C.
According to the Complaint filed in San Diego County of California’s Superior Court, after the defendant law firm identifies National Funding’s customers, they contact them, offer to provide debt relief services, and attempt to persuade them to breach their obligations.
“As part of this effort, Non-Borrower Defendants routinely make misleading representations to National Funding’s customers, including by promising to save them money by settling their obligations to National Funding for a discounted amount when Non-Borrower Defendants have no legitimate basis for making such a promise and no reasonable expectation of being able to fulfill such a promise,” it says.
Among the causes of action against that defendant in particular are Intentional Interference with Contractual Relations, Unfair Competition, Conducting Business as a Prorater Without a License, Unauthorized Practice of Law, and Violation of Uniform Voidable Transfer Act.
The case number is 37-2024-00021246-CU-BC-CTL.
Real-time Reconciliations on Revenue Based Finance Deals?
June 25, 2024In the finance world, taking a percentage of a merchant’s sales at the time a sale is consummated is called a split. It’s how revenue based financing often works when the purchased future receivables are card-based. When it’s all revenue, funding providers often rely on a combination of ACH debits and reconciliations, the frequency of which are governed by the contract. On some big e-commerce platforms, like Walmart Marketplace, for example, sales data is monitored in real-time and the appropriate split is debited out from the merchant’s bank account the next day. Some refer to this as a real-time reconciliation.
Real-time reconciliations have been attempted outside of e-commerce ever since Merchant Cash and Capital aka BizFi (RIP) pioneered this 15 years ago, but it was a manual process riddled with challenges that would hardly hold up in today’s technological world. In 2021, revenue based financing provider FundKite introduced its own system, one that was documented by AltFinanceDaily at the time.
Back then, FundKite CEO Alex Shvarts said, “This product [where debits vary daily based upon true sales] works better for merchants, it works better for portfolios, if you’re actually reconciling and pulling what you’re supposed to, and not what you’re anticipating.”
Three years later, Shvarts still feels the same way and told AltFinanceDaily that his daily reconciliation method has been a success and is now a leading driver of its business.
“In order to reconcile we must have access to the merchant bank accounts,” Shvarts said. “We use priority technology to do the reconciliation after we have the data. We use a combination of live Logins, Plaid, Decision logic and another piece of code we wrote. Merchants are automatically notified of the reconciliation and adjustment to the payments before we debit the accounts.”
The company touts this system as its edge on its homepage.
“Payments are based on sales, offering protection during slower periods or when no sales occur,” the site says.
