BFS Capital Joins the Ranks of Consolidated Powerhouses in Alternative Lending

Coral Springs, FL-based Business Financial Services has joined the ranks of consolidated powerhouses with the announcement of their rebrand to BFS Capital. As part of the move, the company has unified its North American business affiliates.

Entrust Merchant Solutions, GBR Funding and Premium Capital Group will now also use the BFS Capital name. Entrust, who was acquired by BFS Capital on August 26th, has become the firm’s direct sales division. Ilya Fridman, Entrust’s former CEO, is now a Senior Vice President of BFS Capital and will oversee sales.

Boost Capital, their UK arm, is not changing its name.

BFS Capital is the latest small business funding provider to consolidate their affiliates and change their name.

Already this year, Merchant and Cash and Capital became Bizfi, AmeriMerchant became Capify, and RetailCapital became Credibly. Industry insiders have noticed one thing in common about all these changes, that they’re memorable.

“I think people are thinking about going public and want names that are easily identifiable more than wanting to sound techy,” said John Celifarco, Sales Manager at NY-based Sure Payment Solutions. “Maybe a little of both.”

When deBanked previously asked Rory Marks, a Managing Partner of NY-based Central Diligence Group, about the name recognition-value of certain funders in the industry including Business Financial Services, he said “when choosing to use words that are ubiquitous in the industry, it could be difficult to distinguish yourself. Ultimately this could potentially impact the customer’s ability to fully understand the nature of your business.”

Business financial services could be confused as a genre or a category, a few insiders commented, instead of a company name.

The BFS Capital brand should remedy any confusion, although Justin Benton, Executive Loan Producer of Lenders Marketing shared, “a simple name that conveys what you do has value, not only in the eyes of your potential clients, but in the eyes of search engines like Google. At the end of the day, if you do your job well and the client is pleased with the loan product and service you provide, your name will be positively associated as a trusted resource.”

Business Financial Services has long been referred to as BFS by industry insiders so unlike other funders that completely transformed during their rebrand, BFS Capital may retain more of their previous name’s goodwill.

“Bringing all your companies under one umbrella can bring each company’s unique strengths together in one collective effort, rowing towards one common destination,” said Benton.

BFS Capital has been a hot news item this summer. In July, they surpassed $1 billion in lifetime funding.

Sean Murray is the President and Chief Editor of deBanked and the founder of the Broker Fair Conference. Connect with me on LinkedIn or follow me on twitter. You can view all future deBanked events here.