Wing Lake Capital Announces New Capstone Fund

After acquiring Franklin Capital in October of last year, Wing Lake Capital CEO Shaya Baum spoke to deBanked about a new fund the company is unveiling, the Capstone Fund. 

A mix of debt and equity has put $50 million into the Capstone Fund, all from investors of the Franklin Fund. According to Baum, the Franklin Fund still has about $100 million in it. 

“Wing Lake Capital has two funds now,” said Baum. “There’s the Franklin Fund and the Capstone Fund. The Franklin Fund was launched as a bridge for companies that are stuck in the cash advance merry-go-round. Companies are stacking cash advances until they are using Peter to pay Paul, and then there are no more Peters.”

Comparing the Franklin Fund to the Capstone Fund, Baum described it as a “graduate fund” that will enable companies with too many advances to move beyond them and that it would serve as a stepping stone between the Franklin Fund and traditional SBA or bank financing.

Additionally, the Capstone Fund is also a place where companies who have extenuating reasons why they’re denied credit, but aren’t in distressed business situations, can get access to capital. 

Baum’s business model is sometimes at odds with the advance providers his companies try to draw customers away from, with Baum going so far as to say that some of these providers “hate” him. Despite this, he says that some quietly work with him.

“These companies say one thing publicly and privately do another,” said Baum. “These companies that come to us for help are companies that can no longer pay their cash advance debt.”

As part of his company’s program, the advance provider can recover some of its money, he asserted.

“We’re getting 800 deals a week from cash advance companies saying ‘hey, can you help us get out of these?’”

Regardless of the tension with competitors, Baum believes the new fund will ultimately benefit the merchants.

“The Capstone Fund is really focused on growth capital as opposed to restructuring distressed assets. Okay, we’ve restructured your business, you don’t have to pay that cost of capital, you have to focus only on growth. You have opportunities to grow, room for success, now let’s scale the business.”