Archive for 2019
Top Minds in Fintech Came Together in Manhattan Last Night
April 3, 2019
More than 200 people packed into a Manhattan office last night to hear panelists from top fintech companies discuss everything from Artificial Intelligence (AI) in fintech to U.S. regulations to diversity. The event, called Disruption Forum Fintech NYC, was organized remotely by a Poland-based software and technology consulting company called Netguru. This was their third event, following one in Berlin and another in London.
The event took place at the office of Work-Bench, a VC firm, and most panelists during the four panel event discussed regulations in some form or another.
“We have a conversation with customers before thinking about regulations,” said Katherine Kornas, Senior Director of Product at Betterment, an online financial advice company. “I try to free my team of constraints.”
Afterwards, they address constraints and work creatively with them, she said. But at least they know that they started off from a place of trying to solve a problem for the customer.
“Hire a really fun and creative Chief Compliance Officer,” said Melissa Cullens, Chief Design Officer at Ellevest, which provides investing advice geared towards women. “We wanted to create profiles with people’s faces and she said “No.” But then we ended up coming up with a different idea that was also really great.”
Melissa Cullens, Chief Design Officer at Ellevest, Katherine Kornas, Senior Director of Product at Betterment, Sudev Balakrishnan, Chief Product Officer at Stash
One theme was how U.S. regulations have made it difficult for fintech companies to enter the highly coveted U.S. market, particularly when compared to Europe.
“Regulators in the U.S. decided to go after the banks after the [financial crisis in 2008,]” said Arshi Singh, North America Head of Product at Currencycloud, a London-based company that improves B2B payments. “The UK went the opposite way and made it very lax for fintechs so they could compete with banks.”
In the U.S., fintechs must partner with banks to carry out many services and some banks are friendlier to fintechs than others.
Charley Ma, NYC Growth Manager at Plaid, Jody Perla, MD of Global Banking & Payment Infrastructure at Payoneer
Andrew Boyajian, Head of Banking, North America at Transferwise, which makes it cheaper to send money across country borders, said that part of his job is to find U.S. banks that are willing to work with them. He said that some of them are, but other banks still have policies against working with companies like his that deliver bank-like services.
Nicolas Kopp, U.S. CEO at N26, Dan Westgarth, North America General Manager at Revolut, Arshi Singh, North America Head of Product at Currencycloud, Andrew Boyajian, Head of Banking, North America at Transferwise
One panel focused on AI in fintech.
“All the data is useless if you’re not getting insights from it,” said Farrah Lakhani, Director of Growth and Operations for OakNorth Analytical Intelligence, which analyzes data to fund business loans. “I ask ‘How are we doing this faster with this data?’ How does this add to our value proposition? This helps me get through the wall of lingo.”
With regard to the notion of AI replacing human beings altogether, Lakhani said she thinks we all need to get that idea out of our heads.
“You do need human beings to think and reason,” she said.
Regarding the fear that robots may become as human-like as humans, AI specialist and panelist Alex Jaimes joked that he’s met some humans who he could have sworn were robots.
Farrah Lakhani, Director of Growth and Operations at OakNorth Analytical Intelligence, Alex Jaimes, SVP AI & Data Science at Dataminr
With seven offices in Poland, Netguru employs 600 people, a quarter of whom work remotely. They company was founded in 2008 and more than 90% of its business comes from the U.S., the UK and Germany.
Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against Brendan Ross, Direct Lending Investments, and Others
April 2, 2019
A class action lawsuit has been filed in California against Direct Lending Investments, LLC (DLI), Brendan Ross, Bryce Mason, Frank Turner, Rodney Omanoff, and Quarterspot Inc. alleging breach of contract, breaches of fiduciary duty, aiding and abetting breaches of fiduciary duty, and fraudulent inducement.
The claims are drawn from a series of revelations that have come out about the online lending hedge fund, namely that the fund lost nearly 25% of its value through a failed loan to VOIP Guardian Partners I (VOIP) and an SEC complaint that alleged DLI engaged in a scheme to misrepresent performance with the help of an online lender it invested in.
Plaintiffs point out many issues with the VOIP deal but hone in on the fact that the company engaged in risky behavior by taking DLI’s funds and lending out more than 75% of them to just two companies, Najd Technologies Ltd and Telacme Ltd. deBanked previously determined these now-defunct companies were headquartered in the United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong. Documents obtained through VOIP’s bankruptcy filing indicate that both companies ceased making payments in October 2018. Despite this, DLI continued to report to investors that they were achieving very favorable monthly returns, the plaintiffs say, and no mention of VOIP’s distress was disclosed.
Bryce Mason and Frank Turner were named as defendants because they sat on DLI’s investment committee with Ross.
The plaintiffs are investment vehicles for a husband and wife that DLI last reported had a combined value of $758,000. They seek class action certification. They had only just begun investing with DLI last year.
On Monday, a judge in the SEC lawsuit ordered that DLI be placed in receivership. Bradley D. Sharp of Development Specialists, Inc. has been appointed to serve as permanent receiver for the fund’s estate.
You can download the full class action lawsuit complaint here.
Kapitus Rolls Out Fully Automated Funding Process
April 2, 2019
New York, NY – Kapitus, a leading provider of alternative financing to small and midsize businesses, announces the roll-out of auto-checkout – a fully automated funding process for qualified deals. The new process allows for not only a faster, more streamlined experience for its partners; but it also provides more flexible financing options, by providing multiple offers at once. At the same time, the new process provides merchants with secure and quick access to funds for their business.
Unlike competing models where only an “option of approval” or “conditional approval” is provided at the time of checkout, Kapitus is able to determine approval eligibility with only an application and bank statements without the need for multiple upfront stipulations to confirm bank information, ownership and identity. Utilizing proprietary machine learning models – eligible deals can be closed without any additional documentation.
“This is a true turning-point for us from a technology perspective and we’re very excited about it,” said Andrew Reiser, Chief Executive Officer at Kapitus. “With this new automated process, we’re able to provide our partners an extremely simple process with an exceptionally quick time-to-funding. At the same time, merchants are provided with a more seamless experience with enhanced security”
Major features in the roll-out include:
- True auto-check functionality with full approval at time of checkout
- Progress tracking and customizable notifications to follow merchants through the checkout process
- Intuitive user interface with precise, easy-to-understand instructions for both merchants and partners
- Simple, seamless secure checkout functionality for merchants
“This is the first of many technology advancements we will be rolling out over the next year,” adds Arun Narayan, Chief Product Officer. “We are committed to creating exceptional experiences for both our partners and merchants. Incorporating the right technology is paramount in building out the right environment and the best experience for all of our audiences.”
ABOUT Kapitus
Founded in 2006 and headquartered in NYC, Kapitus is one of the most reliable and respected names in small business financing. As both a direct lender and a marketplace built with a trusted network of lending partners, Kapitus is able to provide small businesses the financing they need, when and how it is needed. With one application business owners can save time and money, while eliminating the stress that comes with applying to different lenders. At Kapitus, we believe that business owners should be able to focus on running their business, while we take care of the financing. Learn more at https://kapitus.com
CONTACT: Bernadette Abel
Kapitus
babel@kapitus.com
646-722-1484
Will Millennials Bring Non-banks into Their Finances?
April 1, 2019
Following Apple’s announcement last week of its upcoming Apple Credit Card, one question that comes to mind is: Will people, particularly millennials (now roughly 22 to 37 years old), be up for banking with non-bank companies?
According to an Accenture survey from five years ago, 34% of millennials said they would bank with Apple if such a product were available. Well, five years later, the product is available and Apple is now hoping to capture that demographic. According to the same survey, even more millennials at the time said they would be open to banking with Amazon or Google, and all with no physical branches.
Sankar Krishnan, Executive Vice President, Banking and Capital Markets, at Capgemini, a technology services and consulting company, said that convenience is most important to millennials.
“Millennials and Gen Y live their lives on smartphones… [and] daily comforts such as Uber, Starbucks, Amazon, Tinder and Netflix, are just a swipe away,” Krishan said in an interview in Forbes last year. “As a result, [they] have become accustomed to a quality digital customer experience where ease of use and inbuilt functionality are front and center.”
The implication is that any digital company with enough visibility and the ability to execute is fair game to enter the banking business. Why not Netflix? But Tinder?
Regardless, most major technology companies, like Amazon, Google, Facebook and Uber, are already in the payments space in one way or another. While potentially jarring at first, it seems that many millennials are ready to allow non-bank brands to become more a part of their finances.
Yet despite all the talk of how millennials are willing to break with convention, almost half of millennials said they would not consider switching to a bank that had no physical branches, according to a January 2019 survey conducted by eMarketer.com, which creates marketing reports.
“Though [millennials] may use branches less than older consumers, they don’t want to forgo the option of going to a physical location,” said eMarketer principal analyst Mark Dolliver. “The step from ‘digital’ to ‘digital-only’ is a big one, and many millennials will be in no hurry to take it.”
Lyft IPO Follows a Foray into Finance Business
March 29, 2019
Lyft had its IPO today in the same week it announced that it was offering a debit card to its drivers. The company announced the launch of “Lyft Driver Services,” a suite of services for Lyft drivers including Lyft Direct, a no-fee bank account and debit card. The Lyft Direct debit card will allow drivers to instantly access their earnings after each ride, according to a company statement on its Medium page. This is an extension of Express Pay, which allows drivers to cash out on their earnings right away, rather than wait for the pay cycle to end.
“The traditional biweekly paycheck falls short of serving today’s workers, and the rising costs of maintaining a bank account disadvantage them further,” Lyft COO Jon McNeill explained in a statement. “Americans pay an average of $163/year in banking fees. Minimum balances are often greater than what many people can save, and most cash-back programs require an above-average credit score. We’re fixing that for our drivers.”
The Lyft Direct debit card has 4% cash-back on select restaurant purchases, 2% on gas, and 1% on groceries. Additionally, Lyft will offer its drivers a no-fee bank account with access to over 20,000 fee-free ATMs. Lyft is working with Oklahoma-based Stride Bank on this program. Stride Bank will manage all of the drivers’ bank accounts.
Last April, Uber released the Uber Visa debit card with Go Bank which also allows drivers to get paid instantly. Like the Lyft Direct debit card, the Uber debit card also gives users cash-back, like 3% on Exxon and Mobil gas, 2% on Walmart purchases and 8% on your Sprint bill.
Uber is no stranger to finance. In fact, the company once offered a product akin to an MCA where drivers were offered money up front in exchange for a percentage of their future fares, according to a deBanked story from 2016. That arrangement was made by Clearbanc. Uber also got into the leasing business with its leasing program, Xchange Leasing. But that was phased out beginning in 2017 due to myriad problems, including losses, an FTC lawsuit that dealt with misrepresenting the program, and an FTC complaint, according to a December 2018 post on The Simple Dollar, a personal finance website. The complaint accused Uber of connecting its drivers with subprime auto companies and dealers that provided interest rates significantly higher than industry averages.
So while Uber offers its drivers a debit card, it has backed away from other financing. With Lyft a step behind, will Lyft stop with this new debit card? Or perhaps learn from Uber’s mistakes and expand into the lending space?
The Lyft stock (NASDAQ: LYFT) started at $72 and closed its first day of trading at $78.29, up 8.7 percent.
Online Lender Offering “Incredible” Returns to Investors is Recording Massive Losses
March 29, 2019
StreetShares continues to rack up astronomical losses, according to the company’s recently filed unaudited financial statements. The company recorded a $6.4 million loss for the second half of 2018 on only $1.88 million in operating revenue. As in previous periods, payroll continues to be the largest expense.
StreetShares’ funding comes in part from mom & pop investors that are offered a fixed annual return of 5% regardless of how the company’s underlying loans perform. Advertisements on the website call it “incredible” and trumpet that you can “grow your money like a 2x World War champ” and that “your balance will grow every day.” The offering is called a veteran business bond but it has no government backing and can suffer a total risk of loss, all while the underlying loans may not even be made to veteran-owned businesses.
A simple explanation on the site for how it works is that you just open an account, transfer funds from your bank and then just “watch the interest start piling up.” You can withdraw your money anytime but large withdrawals over $50,000 can take up to 30 days to process, the company states. The attractive terms have allowed StreetShares to take in millions of dollars from everyday people with amounts as small as $25.
Institutional investors can earn even higher returns. Lendit Co-founder Peter Renton recently called StreetShares his “top performing investment by a long way,” beating his investments in Lending Club, Prosper, P2Binvestor, Peerstreet, Yieldstreet, Money360, Fundrise, and even the returns previously and erroneously reported by Direct Lending Investments.
deBanked previously reported that on January 1st, Jesse Cushman, the company’s Chief Business Officer and Principal Financial & Accounting Officer, resigned. However, his name continues to remain on the website’s Leadership page a full 3 months later. The company still has not named a permanent successor. deBanked emailed StreetShares earlier in the week about Cushman’s departure and was told that he left to pursue another opportunity. “Steve Vickrey, has been in place since before he left,” President Mickey Konson responded. Konson has been filling in as acting Principal Accounting Officer in the meantime.
In a press release published by StreetShares on Tuesday about a new credit card offering, StreetShares CEO/co-Founder & Iraq War Veteran Mark L. Rockefeller, said, “Veterans love to help other veterans. StreetShares is a veteran-run company, and the goal of the card is not only to provide a veteran focused payments tool, but also to benefit the veteran community as a whole by funding programs that benefit veteran entrepreneurship.”
Tiny Small Businesses Struggle More Than the Rest
March 28, 2019
The average credit score of the owner of a “mom and pop” shop (a business with four or fewer employees) is 30 points lower than the owner of a larger business, according to a recent study conducted by Lendio. (Lendio defined a “mom and pop” business and having four or fewer employees). Furthermore, the study says that, on average, mom and pop businesses require twice as many interactions with a lending expert, compared to larger small businesses. This is likely because of problems with credit and other financial challenges.
Smaller mom and pop businesses are in greater need of capital, according to the study. These businesses represent 53% of the customers funded through Lendio’s online marketplace. And their loans account for 34% of the total loan volume funded, even though the average size of their loans is smaller. The average loan amount for a “mom and pop” business is less than half that of larger businesses. Specifically, the average loan amount for “mom and pop” businesses is $23,081, while the average loan amount for larger small businesses is $54,188. Of course, a larger company with greater sales can afford to borrow more. But the $54,188 average loan size for larger companies may be a smaller percentage of revenue for those larger companies.
Speaking of revenue, mom and pop businesses’ monthly revenues are on average $35,000 less than their non-mom and pop small business counterparts. The smaller mom and pop shops are also generally younger, according to the Lendio study. Their average time in business is 5.6 years compared to 7.4 years for the larger small businesses.
What Did Direct Lending Investments Invest In?
March 27, 2019
When Bloomberg News reported that Direct Lending Investments (DLI) had lost approximately 25% of its portfolio value from a deal gone bad, some were surprised to learn that it had nothing to do with its core competency of online lending. VOIP Guardian Partners I, which stuck DLI with more than $190 million in unpaid loans, was in the business of lending money to smaller telecoms against their accounts receivables, Bloomberg News reported. VOIP was then supposed to be repaid the money when larger telecom companies paid the smaller ones.
On March 11, VOIP filed for Chapter 7, and limited details behind these telecom borrowers became public.
VOIP’s largest loan default was to a Hong Kong-based company formed in 2015 named Telacme, Ltd. Records indicate that $1 billion overall had been loaned to Telacme through 30-day rolling advances but that they stopped making payments in October 2018, leaving a remaining balance to VOIP and in turn to DLI, of $101.1 million. Telacme’s official website no longer exists and only a holding page by Godaddy indicating that the page has been parked free remains. (Update 4/16/19 – The website has been restored)
The second largest default at $58 million was to a company named Najd Technologies, Ltd, headquartered in the United Arab Emirates. Like Telacme, Najd stopped paying in October 2018 and their website is also no longer accessible. Internet archives show it advertised itself as a global telecom company based in Bangkok, Thailand.
The other remaining telecom loan issues spanned companies all across Europe.
A lawsuit filed against DLI in 2017 complained that DLI falsely represented to investors that it typically made loans that ranged between $5,000 and $100,000 when in fact DLI had been financing multi-million dollar telecom deals as far back as 2014. The plaintiffs went so far as to claim that at one point up to 50% of DLI’s portfolio was invested in telecom receivables.
But the claims were removed in a subsequent amended version of the lawsuit after the judge ordered them stricken because the plaintiffs themselves were not aggrieved investors, but instead unhappy former business partners alleging violations of a non-compete.
“I don’t understand why it’s in the complaint,” the judge said. “Particularly, when [DLI] says it is impacting their ability to raise money.”
The decision was prescient as DLI would not only go on to raise more money but also lose more than $190 million of investor money in telecom deals that weren’t overtly advertised.
A March 2017 DLI investor presentation obtained by deBanked touts its focus on underserved Main Street USA businesses. There is no mention of international telecom lending, nor any plans to finance telecom businesses for hundreds of millions of dollars, let alone do so in the Middle East, Asia, and Europe.
In VOIP’s bankruptcy filing, DLI is the primary secured creditor. DLI’s chief executive recently resigned and the fund has been sued by the Securities & Exchange Commission for issues unrelated to VOIP and is being placed under receivership.
The 2017 lawsuit against DLI and VOIP can be found under Index #650973/2017 In the New York Supreme Court.
