Archive for 2019
Parris Sanz Joins Petal as General Counsel
January 31, 2019Former CAN Capital CEO Parris Sanz is now the General Counsel for Petal, according to a company announcement. Petal is a US credit card aimed at the unbanked that recently closed a $30 million Series B round led by Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures.
According to a story in TechCrunch, Petal had more than 100,000 potential applicants sign up during the company’s private beta phase. This latest capital raise will be used in part to expand the product to more customers.
Alternative Finance Bar Association Webinar to Be Held on Feb 7th
January 30, 2019
Fundbox Increases Speed of B2B Transactions
January 29, 2019
Prashant Fuloria, COO, FundboxAt the end of last week, Fundbox announced that it has launched an AI-enabled platform for B2B companies at the point of transaction, or check out.
“We’re positioning ourselves to be the PayPal for B2B transactions,” a company spokesperson, Tim Donovan, told deBanked. “And that means becoming as ubiquitous as finding Visa, Amex or PayPal in a B2C checkout flow.”
As part of this new e-commerce feature, Fundox can underwrite companies looking to make a purchase in as fast as 45 seconds, Donovan said. And sellers get paid right away. This, of course, is a boon for sellers, who often must wait to get paid. (Fundbox takes on the risk of potentially not getting paid.) For buyers, Fundbox’s terms are generally better compared to using a credit card, Donovan said. As long as the buyer’s credit is approved, they can purchase inventory on an online platform within 3 minutes.
“This [new feature] marks our evolution from a product-centric company to a platform-centric company,” said Prashant Fuloria, COO of Fundbox.
Fundbox offers a number of small business products including small business loans, factoring and lines of credit. Fundbox is partnered with larger companies like Eventbrite, for event organizing, and QuickBooks, for accounting, to help lend to small businesses that use these platforms.
deBanked CONNECT Miami 2019 Photos
January 28, 2019
Thanks For Coming to deBanked CONNECT Miami
January 26, 2019
We would like to thank everyone that sponsored and attended deBanked CONNECT Miami. We’ll publish the photos when we have them available. If you enjoyed the event, you’ll love the upcoming full day Broker Fair 2019 conference on May 6th in New York City at the Roosevelt Hotel. It will be our biggest crowd yet. Early bird pricing is available through February 1st, so don’t delay!
Check out our video highlight reel below of last year’s Broker Fair in Brooklyn, NY.
Funding Circle Partners with Stripe
January 23, 2019
Funding Circle announced this morning that it has joined the Stripe Partner Program, which will allow the company to provide financing to Stripe customers in the United States. Funding Circle is a small business loan funder that offers fully amortizing small business term loans. Their loans range from $25,000 to $500,000 and have terms between six months and five years.
“We’re excited to work with Stripe to connect even more business owners with the affordable capital they need to go further,” said Bernardo Martinez, U.S. Managing Director of Funding Circle. “Funding Circle and Stripe are both dedicated to helping companies scale their businesses in the digital age, ultimately creating jobs, opportunities, and driving growth in the broader economy.”
This is Funding Circle’s first integration partnership with a payments platform in the U.S. With the partnership, Funding Circle gets access to Stripe’s small business owners, but Stripe also wins by providing more services to its customers.
“We are enabling Stripe customers to finance their growth and the end result is that, as these companies grow, [Stripe] has a higher number of payments go through their system,” said Martinez.
No money will exchange hands between Funding Circle and Stripe, Martinez said. While this partnership will start with Stripe’s U.S. small business customers, Martinez said that Funding Circle is excited about the opportunity to scale with Stripe, which serves customers internationally.
Funding Circle is not the only small business lender that has partnered with Stripe. Another company called Bitbond, based in Berlin, is listed on the company’s Stripe Partner Program.
Founded 2010, Funding Circle is headquartered in London and has lent $8.6 billion to 62,000 businesses globally. Listed on the London Stock Exchange as FCH, the company employs about 1,000 people and has offices in San Francisco and Denver.
Yellowstone Capital LLC Appoints Tangela Griffin as Chief Compliance Officer to Enhance its Compliance and Ethics Practices
January 23, 2019Hiring Evidence of Company’s Commitment to Compliance
New York, N.Y. (January 23, 2019)— Yellowstone Capital LLC (a Fundry Brand), a fintech company offering alternative financing to a wide variety of businesses, has appointed Tangela Griffin to the position of Chief Compliance Officer. Ms. Griffin will be responsible for enhancing and providing oversight of the company’s Compliance and Ethics Program, including regulatory compliance. Ms. Griffin will report directly to the Company’s Chief Executive Officer, and its President.
“Yellowstone recognizes the importance of a strong corporate compliance function and is excited that Tangela has joined our organization to spearhead and continue those efforts,” the company said in a statement.
Ms. Griffin brings extensive industry experience in regulatory compliance and risk management to Yellowstone. She is a former Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”) Large Bank Supervision Compliance Examiner and most recently served as the Head of Compliance at a financial services technology company. She previously held the position of Senior Vice President at Citibank and Deputy Compliance Officer/Assistant General Counsel at a foreign banking organization, amongst others.
Ms. Griffin holds a B.A. in History from Old Dominion University, a J.D. from St. John’s University School of Law and is a member of the New York State Bar. She is also a FINRA Dispute Resolution Arbitrator.
BFS Capital Surpasses $2 Billion in Financing
January 22, 2019
BFS Capital announced this morning that it has exceeded $2 billion in financing to over 22,000 small businesses across the United States, Canada and the UK.
“This is a major originations milestone,” said Mark Ruddock, CEO of BFS Capital. “We’re incredibly proud to see these investments take root, as BFS Capital continues to solidify its position as a central source for financing small businesses and their everyday capital needs.”
BFS Capital provides business loans and MCA deals from $5,000 to $500,000 to a wide variety of merchants. In 2018, fourth quarter originations were the highest ever in the company’s 17-year history. And third quarter originations also represented the best third quarter in the company’s history.
“In 2018 we enhanced our sales and marketing programs and made significant advances in our underwriting models so that we could better serve small businesses,” Ruddock said.
Ruddock also said that they are constantly thinking of ways to be better partners to the ISOs. He said that they plan to speed up the process from lead to loan by 30% this year, so that, with continued improvements in technology, approvals can take a matter of minutes and eventually happen instantaneously. Currently, they make decisions within a matter of hours.
“We’re also trying to communicate more clearly with [our ISO partners] about what sorts of merchants we are more likely to fund than not, so that they can be more efficient themselves,” Ruddock said.
Apart from accelerating speed in approval time for certain financing, Ruddock said that BFS also excels in serving customers that he calls “diamonds in the rough,” or businesses that sometimes even other alternative lenders will reject because they don’t understand them.
“BFS will very often be in a position to look at a company that perhaps might look complicated to others, and be able to say ‘Yes, this is a deal that we will do,’” Ruddock said.
This process is a little less automated as it requires more creative thinking on the part of their underwriting team, Ruddock said. Founded in 2002 and headquartered in Coral Springs, FL, BFS also has offices in New York, California and the UK.
