Adam Zaki was a Reporter at deBanked. Articles by Adam Zaki
Adam is a Reporter from Long Island and graduate of Brooklyn College.
DoorDash Now Offers Merchant Cash Advances
January 19, 2022
DoorDash has made its way into the small business financing game. DoorDash Capital, as the financing arm is so named, claims to provide merchant cash advances to DoorDash partners against future sales orders placed through the DoorDash app.
The DoorDash website explains the product in detail.
“There is no interest rate because a merchant cash advance is not a loan,” the website says. “There is a fixed fee stated up front which will be collected together with the capital advance. Your fee will never change after you have accepted the offer.”
All of these deals are processed through Parafin, a Silicon Valley-based funder who was started by former Robinhood data scientists and engineers. They spoke to the Wall Street Journal in September about their launch and the onboarding of their first customer, Mindbody.
As a software provider with a financing arm of their business, Mindbody reportedly uses Parafin’s funds to provide financing through Mindbody Capital. When speaking to the Journal, Parafin’s Chief Executive Sahill Poddar said that Mindbody customers would pay fees between 6%-15%.
“We are categorically distinct from online lenders,” Poddar told the Journal.“We only get paid back when the [small business] makes sales.”
It’s still unclear the amount of DoorDash merchants getting financing from DoorDash Capital. From the looks of it, the program is still in its infancy.
When deBanked reached out to DoorDash for a progress report on the program, the company declined to speak. “No comment at this time,” said a DoorDash representative when asked about the progress, usage, and ideas behind DoorDash Capital.
“Our goal is to provide our partners with fair, fast and convenient financing,” the DoorDash website says. “To help partners gain access to additional capital, we partnered with Parafin, a business financing provider, to offer cash advances that you pay back automatically with your DoorDash sales. You can use the capital for inventory, payroll, rent, marketing or for your cash flow needs.”
HODL! How Crypto Can Make IRAs Attractive to Young People
January 14, 2022
“I’ll be honest, I don’t know if I have had a client under the age of 25.”
Tom Tantillo, an IRA Specialist with NuView Trust, thinks that cryptocurrencies can be the way to finally get younger people excited about investing for retirement. As the emergence of web3 has opened up the door to parts of the financial world for many who would otherwise had never have taken part, Tantillo believes that the same can now be mimicked in IRAs.
“Everyone loves paying less taxes, and everyone loves giving less money to Uncle Sam,” said Tantillo. “[However] the main thing is getting young people excited to save for retirement, because it’s not sexy.”
According to Tantillo, a self-directed IRA with digital assets creates a perfect balance of risk and reward for a digitally native investor. Much like mutual funds or traditional stocks, crypto packaged alongside other conservative investments can create big returns in portfolios.
“If you put 2-3 percent of your portfolio into crypto, just the top ten ones off market cap, not going crazy or anything, you can boost your portfolio returns past the S&P 500 average and up to 16 percent.”
After NuView’s investor’s retreat last week, Tantillo claims that after inquiring about feedback from clients, the highest rated panel at their event was the three hour panel dedicated to digital assets. “Clients were like, ‘this cryptocurrency stuff, I don’t know much about it, but I’m interested and I want to get started.’”
Not only do digital assets provide a trendy appeal to retirement investing, they also provide the technology element that younger people see as a sense of legitimacy in a financial product. Tantillo believes that although the potential for digital assets is astronomical in terms of changing the investment mindset of younger people, he also is aware that the current system and demographics in retirement savings are holding the innovation back to a certain extent.
“The whole reason why I educate myself on this is so I can stay ahead,” he said. “That’s what I encourage everyone to do. I don’t want to be that old parent asking their son or daughter how to use tech, I don’t want to fall behind.”
With the maximum contribution in most IRAs being no more than $6,000, Tantillo argues that it’s almost a no-brainer for a financially intelligent crypto enthusiast to bank on digital assets for retirement. “You can do quite a lot of damage with $6,000,” he said. “If you put $6,000 of Bitcoin in an IRA six years ago, you’d be chillin.”
Why FundThrough Acquired BlueVine’s Factoring Business
January 13, 2022
“I know it might seem sudden for you, but we’ve been engaged in discussions since the Summer, and [BlueVine] has been in discussions internally for certainly longer than that.”
FundThrough announced their acquisition of the factoring division of BlueVine on Thursday. A deal that has been long in the works will make the Canadian factoring company’s American portfolio 80 percent of their business.
“From FundThrough’s perspective, we’ve always had BlueVine’s factoring business on our radar,” said FundThrough’s Co-founder and CEO Steven Uster, exclusively to deBanked. “We started around the same time, they grew their business nicely, and then they started to branch out to other products.”
Uster spoke about BlueVine outgrowing their factoring business, while FundThrough was growing enough to acquire it. “From the outside looking in, it looked like this might’ve been turning into a non-core asset for them, but yet very core for us.”
For FundThrough, the move is substantial. The company has acquired their largest competitor’s inaugural product. According to Uster, the move brings two companies together who are starkly similar in more ways than just the product they sell.
“We share similar cultures, we’re much smaller obviously as a whole, but our factoring business is bigger,” he said. “We share a similar mindset, we’re also a technology based business, our systems are quite similar, so the move [will] be an easier, elegant transition.”
“We determined that FundThrough is perfectly positioned to serve our factoring clients with the care and individual attention they need and deserve,” said Eyal Lifshitz, Co-founder and CEO of BlueVine. “Our factoring clients will be in great hands with FundThrough.”
Lifshitz spoke on his company’s growth, and how the move will allow the company to focus on better serving their existing customers. “Since launching BlueVine, we’ve been focused on the financial needs of small businesses and are very proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish. As we evolve our products and services, we continuously examine how we can better serve our customers at scale.”
According to Uster, fintech-inspired invoice factoring has sparked unprecedented interest in the financial world lately. While he is unsure of the reason, the engagement and inquiries FundThrough has received prior to the acquisition have been significantly higher than in the past.
“Something shifted over the last twelve months,” Uster said. “All of the sudden, without much branding, we have been getting a bunch of inquiries about partnering and providing this embedded invoice factoring solution.”
With their acquisition comes confidence, and it sounds like FundThrough is ready to be on the forefront of tech-infused financing. “[The acquisition] provides us the scale to be the partner of choice. We are now the players in the market,” Uster said.
“If you want to offer tech enabled instant funding on invoices in your B2B marketplace, FundThrough is now the solution.”
Canadian Lending Looks Strong Post-Pandemic
January 11, 2022
After having their entire industry threatened by pandemic-induced restrictions, the Canadian alternative finance space has started 2022 off with a bang. Canadian lending saw billions in growth, as the industry hopes to utilize fintech’s technology and the government’s new take on open banking to bring their industry back to full swing.
“Main Street small business recovery is looking very strong for 2022 as restrictions ease moving into the warmer weather,” said Tal Schwartz, Senior Advisor for the Canadian Lenders Association. “However, in the short term, lenders are paying close attention to the Omicron variant, and particularly how aggressive the federal government is prepared to be in terms of sustained subsidies.”
Despite the uncertainty of the next several months, Canadian finance seems to have a healthy balance of offering modern financial products alongside an effort a return to normalcy. The crypto-lender Ledn raised $70M USD for the world’s first crypto-secured mortgage product, while the BNPL company Flexiti received a $527M facility from the National Bank of Canada. Merchant Growth, a small business lender, also raised $4m in equity financing.
According to Schwartz, most lenders who stayed in business used the last year to deeply invest in their technology across the board.
“[Lenders] have equally repositioned themselves in ways that better service a post-pandemic SMB clientele,” he said. “There is significant effort among lenders to evolve into financial health dashboards of a business, rather than being viewed exclusively as a financing source.”
According to the numbers, there has been significant growth by two notable Canadian lenders that are acting both as a financial management tool and a lending source. Canada’s largest subprime lender goeast Ltd, and Borrowell, a mobile loan marketplace, achieved $2B in portfolios and 2M users respectively to end the year.
“Fintech platforms become more sticky and can capture more client data if they become a hub for business management, with financing simply being a component of their platform,” said Schwartz. “Fintech lenders are coming out of the pandemic much stronger and with a sharper mandate than before.”
Codat’s Partnership with Moody’s Brings Real-Time Merchant Accounting Data to Lenders
January 10, 2022
Codat and Moody’s Analytics are partnering to bring the fintech’s API software into Moody’s CreditLens solution. The move will enable Moody users looking to fund small businesses the ability to access and manage all of the accounting data for the respective merchant looked to be funded.
Along with an effort to increase efficiency in the approval and funding processes, both companies seem to hope that the partnership will also improve access to capital for small businesses across the US.
“We find ourselves in a time of rapid change, where new approaches to financing and technology are becoming increasingly important to small businesses,” said Peter Lord, CEO & Co-Founder of Codat . “Moody’s Analytics has impressive global scale and reach, so this partnership holds the potential to meaningfully reverse the credit crunch facing SMEs while opening up new profitable lines of business for financial institutions.”
“Together we will be able to extend the benefits of Codat’s two-way flow of financial data to more lenders and financial institutions, allowing them easier access to a wider data set to make high-quality, data-driven credit decisions,” said Lord.
CreditLens is a “credit lifecycle management solution” with access to large amounts of data from across the lending space. Codat’s software will enhance data transferring in the CreditLens platform by offering real-time accounting data on merchants that is instantly accessible by Moody users.
“We are excited to welcome Codat as a new accounting data aggregation technology partner to boost the value of Moody’s Analytics lending solutions,” said Eric Grandeo, Product Head for Moody’s Analytics Lending Solutions.”Codat provides a seamless interchange of real-time data to enable valuable credit insights and predictive capabilities.”
“We are both dedicated to helping financial service businesses gain [a] deep understanding of their client’s risk and behavior, and make better decisions based on real-time accounting, banking, and commerce data,” Grandeo continued. “Ultimately, the partnership will afford small businesses across the U.K and U.S. access to more credit options, opportunity and growth.”
Lenders Love One-Man Broker Shops, Rookie Broker Finds
January 5, 2022
“After meeting so many people at the Broker Fair in New York City, I was like, ‘you know what, now is the time for it. I’m young, so let’s take the risk and start my own company.’”
Matt Dolecki, a 23-year old entrepreneur who owned and sold two businesses before he graduated high school, is taking the young hustler’s mindset to the alternative finance world. Just this week, Dolecki started his own brokerage; dubbing it Opulent Capital.
Although Dolecki wants to start funding deals immediately and create relationships across the space, he is aware that he needs to also focus on honing in on the foundations of his business if he wants true success.
“I think a lot of people when they enter this space try to grow too fast and too big too quickly,” he said. “I’m not here to grow extremely fast or extremely big. I’m here to establish a well-rounded company and not tarnish my work just trying to grow fast.”
After interning at a funding company after college and subsequently working for a commercial collections agency, Dolecki believes his experience seeing all sides of the process will set him aside from other brokers.
“I have enough knowledge and information for the merchant to not just broker them the deal, but inform the merchant and let them know exactly what they’re getting, what’s possible for them, and what’s the better option,” Dolecki said.
“I have the debt collection side, and I’ve worked in [small business funding], so I have a really well rounded knowledge of how this whole thing works. If someone were to default, I know exactly which way to go. I can guide the lender on exactly which way to go, I have all the contacts on both sides, lenders and brokers, as well as many debt collections agencies. So I can help lenders not only get business, but retain business and get back lost revenue.”
Not only is Dolecki confident that his experience will set him and his company aside from competitors, he also believes his strength in numbers, or lack of, will allow him to operate a smooth show.
“I’m a one man shop,” said Dolecki. “I’ve talked to a lot of lenders, and they like the idea of having one person to deal with. Information is directly to the source, directly to me and directly to the merchant. It’s an easier form of communication. Every lender I’ve talked to agrees that 90% of their best selling ISOs are one man shops.”
When speaking on creating an image for his company from the merchant’s perspective, Dolecki spoke extensively about different types of marketing. He says that a strategy seemingly based on the business owner’s age can determine what type of communication should be used to pitch that particular merchant.
“If you are trying to reach out to small business owners over the age of 60, most likely a call will be more beneficial rather than investing in marketing or SEO,” said Dolecki. “Now there are so many young business owners who all love technology and doing things online, so building a platform where you can use fintech to apply for loans and search different loan options would be much more beneficial to the younger business owners.”
“I think a good mix of using fintech, algorithms, and tech, but also cold calling and [even] reaching out by mail is an effective way of trying to find that perfect mix of using both types of merchants.”
Dolecki has received support from other brokerages in the industry and claims without help, he would never be in the position he is now.
“Shout out to Porsha and Mercedes Brooks at Brooks Partners Finance,” said Dolecki. “They’ve really been a big mentor for me starting out, and helping me to get the ball rolling. I’m now calling merchants, signing on as an ISO with different lenders, and still just getting started.”
Cashback-Crazed Enzo Launches Deposit Accounts
January 4, 2022
Enzo Wealth, the fintech launching a neobank-esque software through Blue Ridge Bank finally came out with their initial account offerings to a select group among the 35,000 people on the account holder’s waitlist. Since the announcement, the company has marketed themselves by offering attractive cashback and equity-based incentives to account holders. According to an email sent out to the selected invitees by CEO Jeremy Shoykhet, the company is still working out the kinks to their offerings.
“We launched the Enzo Early Access Beta a few weeks ago, and are thrilled with the progress so far,” said Shoykhet. “We’ve seen over one-thousand customers join the early access beta. We’ve also been excited to see the uptake in our Rent Payment Cashback Program, with a current run-rate of $1mm of rent payments we will be processing annually.”
Invited waitlist members who sign up for the trial will not only receive a $50 bonus, but any money they spend that may qualify for cashback in the future will be retroactively funded to accounts, should money spent now be qualified for cashback at a later date.
The trial period includes the originally offered 1.5% cashback on rent payments, but with a stipulation during the trial period. Enzo customers seeking cashback on rent must pay rent via ACH from the landlord’s payment portal. According to an email sent by Shoyket to invitees, Enzo account holders will be able to receive the cashback on rent regardless of their payment method as launch progresses.
Enzo caught eyes when it offered wild cashback offerings like 10% on Ubers, 5% on DoorDash, and 1.25% on pretty much everything else. Enzo accounts also pay out a 0.50% APY, which the company claims will be increased as their capabilities allow.
Shoykhet hinted at Enzo continuing to grow as the trial period takes stride. “We are excited to continue growing the platform, adding more features, and inviting more folks to use the product.”
Five Things Small Business Financing Should Look out for in 2022
January 3, 2022
With another year in the books, below is a list of things that the small business finance community should think about in 2022.
Disclosure Laws are Coming
The laws in New York are changing. While the date for the new law was pushed back at least until June, the state is about to make it very difficult to finance small businesses. California, New Jersey, Maryland, Connecticut, and North Carolina are among other states to also keep an eye on regarding disclosures in 2022.
Blockchains, Blockchains, Blockchains
Regardless of the legitimacy of things like cryptocurrencies and NFTs, blockchain technology is on its way to the initial states of implementation in the financial world. In a further effort to eliminate paperwork, redundancy, and time, the idea of a decentralized ledger has all corners of the financial world watching closely.
Merchants are Becoming Digitally Native
As business owners are continuing to emerge as younger and more technologically sound, lenders should embrace fintech in any area of their processes that they can. Just to appear as a tech company may become a marketing strategy for some brokers or lenders, as those who offer the smoothest, simplest, and most technological form of funding will win over their competition with this new emerging business owner.
Brokers Using Motivational Social Media Posts to Develop Brands
As small business financiers continue to try and find their place on social media, there seems to be a gathering of those in the broker space to create motivational content. Keep a lookout for more brokers to continue internet marketing via motivational posts to not only give a face to their company, but legitimize themselves as a go-to in the space; so maybe they can launch some type of broker training program in the future.
Networking Will Continue to Re-Emerge as Top Tool
As 2021 concluded with in-person events slowly approaching normalcy after pandemic induced restrictions, the industry is showing an unprecedented amount of desire to get together multiple times a year to build their books of business. Look for events across finance, technology, and cryptocurrency spaces to increase in both numbers and attendees.
