Anaya Vance is a reporter for deBanked. 
Cover Genius Raises $70M in Series D Funding Led by Dawn Capital
November 8, 2022
The insurtech company, Cover Genius raised $70 M in Series D funding led by Dawn Capital. Participants also included investors from New York-based Atlas Merchant Capital and existing investors including GSquared and King River Capital. The funding will be used to continue growth expansion for new global insurance distribution platform, XCover.
“XCover is our award-winning global distribution platform for any line of insurance or warranty, with an API for instant claims payments that holds an industry-leading Net Promoter Score (NPS) of +65,” said Angus McDonald CEO and Co-Founder of Cover Genius. “We work with our partners to co-create solutions that embed protection that’s licensed or authorized in over 60 countries and all 50 US states.”
This platform makes it simple for digital companies to offer tailored insurance policies directly to their customers and is trusted by some of the world’s largest companies including Booking Holdings (owner of Priceline, Kayak and Booking.com), Intuit, Hopper, Skyscanner, Ryanair, Turkish Airlines, Descartes ShipRush, Zip and SeatGeek. It’s also available at Amazon, Flipkart, eBay, Wayfair, and SE Asia’s largest company, Shopee.
At the moment, Cover Genius is entirely focused on growth and expansion.
“We are a fast-growing, global market leader and this latest funding round will help us as we enter our next growth phase,” said McDonald.
National Funding is Venturing into Automated Lending
November 3, 2022
National Funding did more than just survive the pandemic. Already in 2022 the company upsized its credit facility, invested in Finova Capital, closed on a $125M ABS, and now more recently is going full force into automated lending.
The new initiative that aims to build off of National Funding’s 20 years of experience will be led by Rob Rosenblatt, a seasoned fintech veteran that previously worked for American Express, Chase, Citi, Kabbage, and Behalf.
National Funding will still do business as it has previously but Rosenblatt said that his separate division, formally organized as Business Loan Center, LLC, will differ in that it will be fully digital to the point that borrowers won’t have to engage with a human being if they don’t want to when accessing capital. The self-serve automated experience that takes a customer from application to approval in a matter of minutes is admittedly not a new concept in that of itself, Rosenblatt concedes, but he believes National Funding is equipped to do it better than the rest.
“…what we hope to do that’s unique is, first of all, leverage all of the learnings that National Funding has because they’ve been in business for over 20 years,” Rosenblatt said. “Number two is create a superior technological experience which will help with speed and user experience because we’re brand new, so we won’t in any way be beholden to systems of the past. Third is really be aggressive in our use of alternative data.”
Rosenblatt also emphasized that they will create a “world class user experience” and he expressed his belief that there is more than ample room for a new player to enter this market.
“Dave Gilbert, the founder of National Funding, and Joe Gaudio, who’s the president and COO, they became in the course of our conversations very firmly convinced that there’s a huge opportunity to better serve large swaths of the small business universe that maybe today aren’t quite being served fully by the suite of products that are out there,” Rosenblatt said.
The Flair at Broker Fair
October 27, 2022
Times Square this weekend was filled with representatives of the alternative finance and fintech industry for this year’s Broker Fair.
“There’s just lots of opportunities to network, I mean there’s certainly breakout sessions and things like that, I think many people are excited about those, but I think everybody’s here to network,” said Mike Mroszak, Vice President of Strategic Partnership at Dedicated Financial GBC. “…there’s ample opportunities to do that, the trade show room here is always packed with people, which is not always the case in every conference, so that’s a little bit unique to Broker Fair.”
Funder, brokers, and lenders flooded the sponsor showcase room to talk business and give out swag.
“The best tchotchke is the Lendini tchotchke. Okay, what it is, it’s just a little tool kit, very practical, very handy,” said Michael O’Hare, President at Cashyew Leads. “…the funniest one is actually from FinTap and basically, it’s a button and it says, funded, kind of based off of what Staples says, that was easy, instead it says funded.”
Speakers included Jay Shaw from OnDeck discussing what makes a successful sales team and Keynote speaker Kaplan Mobray inspiring attendees to be excellent. Mobray even surprised the audience with a quick clarinet show. Other sessions that took place include: Bad Deals, The Great Debate, Building America, Equipping the Dream Behind the Scenes, Successful Sales Team (Panel), The State of Real Estate, Truck and Equipment Financing 101, and legal panels surrounding litigation alternatives and the new disclosure laws.
Platinum sponsors Lendini, Rapid Finance, and National Funding also took the stage in between sessions.
deBanked CONNECT Miami was also announced for January 19th, 2023, at the Miami Beach Convention Center. With reoccurring faces at this year’s event, attendees, sponsors and speakers are very excited to reconvene once again in Miami.
“It’s been a good time, not my first actually, my second, but I’m looking to do a lot more and definitely the Miami one in January,” said Charles Wolff, VP of Loan Originations at Financial Lynx.
In The Wake of Hurricane Ian
October 21, 2022
The last week of September was pretty ugly for Floridians with Hurricane Ian hitting numerous cities like Fort Myers, Naples, and Tampa, to name a few. With 2.8 million small businesses making up the Sunshine state, many experienced power outages, flooding, and other physical damages. For the small business finance industry, natural disasters are always a possible challenge that they’ll have to contend with.
Jordan Fein, CEO at Greenbox Capital, knows firsthand how to deal with natural disasters during hurricane season. The Miami-based funding provider has been in business since 2012 and has experience with funding businesses in tropical areas like Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
“We’re now at a point where we feel that we do it among the best on how to handle these kinds of situations in terms of being able to meet our customers’ needs, especially during times of duress,” said Fein.
Flooding, wind damage, and trees fallen over on buildings and properties is what Tarneisha Peters, Regional Director of West Florida at Black Business Investment Fund (BBIF), has seen in her area of South Tampa. Many people have lost power for up to 4 days, affecting not only small businesses but staff members as well. And while the extent of the storm’s effects on some merchants are still unknown, Peters hopes the variety of program mentorship and training will help their clients remain resilient in the wake of the hurricane.
“Over 500,000 people experienced outages in the Tampa Bay area, as well as our staff in the Orlando area, including some of our clients,” said Peters. “Our goal is to support BIPOC business owner’s resiliency, so that they are prepared and able to navigate challenging circumstances that may come their way.”
Mark Kane, CEO at Sunwise Capital in Boca Raton, has seen a fair number of hurricanes since he started his business in 2010. His company has even had to relocate to Orlando before just to have internet in order to work. Businesses that are a true “brick and mortar,” as Kane described, may not have the luxury of moving elsewhere. But before immediately knowing which angle to help clients, Kane tries to look at it from a couple different angles. What was the impact of the damages? What exactly do they need? And how can they accommodate those needs?
“I think it has to be looked at from a number of different levels,” said Kane. “So, what was the total impact? Is it ‘hey, I’m done, I’m out of business?’ or ‘hey, I need a break, because our business is slow, or we haven’t reopened, and I’m not able to make the payments.’”
Meanwhile, impacted businesses may be eligible for Business Physical Disaster Loans as well as Home Disaster and Economic Injury Disaster Loans. For physical damage, the deadline to apply for a loan ends November 28th and economic injuries the deadline ends June 29, 2023.
“BBIF is an SBA lender,” said Tarneisha Peters, who added that the SBA was a great partner of theirs. “[The SBA provides] disaster related support, guidance and business assistance to help provide relief when it is needed most.”
NorthOne is Building Finance Departments For Small Businesses
October 20, 2022
NorthOne recently received $67 million in Series B funding from investors including former NFL star Drew Brees, Battery Ventures, Don Griffith, Ferst Capital Partners, FinTLV, Operator Stack, Redpoint Ventures, Tencent, Tom Williams, and Next Play Capital.
Founded in 2016 by CEO Eytan Bensoussan and COO Justin Adler, NorthOne was designed for small business owners to build a finance department without the complexity of a bank. Coming from an entrepreneurial background, Bensoussan noticed that being a great owner does not make one a great financial manager. With the idea of building good banking and accounting for businesses and combined with Adler’s professional career in the tech space, NorthOne was born.
“We want to build finance departments out of every small business in America, bring the sophistication of what so many of the biggest companies around us enjoy but bring it to the small businesses that could never dream of being able to build a finance department for their small business,” said Bensoussan. “I think that’s the gap that we’re closing.”
Through NorthOne, customers not only get access to a bank account but also technology that organizes and manages other business functions. Business owners can pay invoices, do payroll, and send ACHs or wires in seconds, for example, all while integrating with their existing accounting, e-commerce, and POS software.
Conducting all this from a desk or mobile device without having to go to a bank is a service directed at small businesses with fewer than 10 employees, that are family owned, and are managed locally in the community.
“…here we are talking to a lot of these business owners explaining that there’s so much more that a bank account could offer if it was designed to be more than just a store of money,” said Bensoussan. “I think that’s this eye-opening moment when we talk to them, and we get a lot of folks saying I never even thought that it could go that far. And it’s an exciting moment for us as well.”
Pay Day Just Switched Its Day
October 20, 2022
Direct deposit could soon be hitting some JPMorgan Chase customers’ accounts two days earlier than their regular pay day. A new feature they’re rolling out aims to reduce over drafted checking accounts. In addition to paycheck deposits, it can also be applied to tax refunds, pensions, and government benefits. Such a move is a nod to perks already being offered by fintechs such as Chime and banks as well.
The feature will be available for Chase Secure Banking customers starting this week. There is no minimum deposit to get started and there is a monthly service fee of $4.95.
The transition away from overdraft fees is becoming more common. Last year, Capital One announced it was completely removing overdraft fees and non-sufficient fund fees, for example. Following that trend banks such as Discover, Ally, Axos, Betterment, Wealthfront and Alliant have also introduced no-overdraft account options.
Some “pro-overdraft bankers” believe that fees encourage responsible behavior while opponents have criticized a service that charges money to people for not having enough money.
Onyx IQ Customers Can Now Use Actum Processing
October 18, 2022
Onyx IQ recently announced a new partnership with Actum Processing. Customers of Onyx IQ, a loan & MCA management company founded in 2017, will now be able to process their ACH payments using Actum.
“The lending space happens to be one of our most productive niches, being that funders and brokers need a means to collect payments and fund deals,” said Vincent Lipari, President of Actum, “the ACH network is that vehicle and Actum takes pride in delivering reliable services for our clients.”
Onyx IQ, described as a “digital lending platform that enables you to fully automate every aspect of your business” and led by smb finance veteran Jay Keller, launched its software this past July.
“It’s a workflow solution with all the appropriate integrations and all of the reporting that the MCA and alternative lending spaces might need,” said Elizabeth Schuerman, VP of Sales at Onyx IQ.
The arrangement between the two companies is not mutually exclusive. Onyx IQ customers can use other processors if they so choose and Actum does ACH processing in many spaces outside of lending including the shipping space, fantasy sports, gaming, and more, but the collaboration is significant for another reason; Both individuals, Lipari of Actum and Keller of Onyx IQ, have known each other for roughly 11 years and ironically had never done any business together. When the opportunity presented itself, their non-business relationship grew into this newfound partnership.
“Integrations like the one we have with Onyx IQ help Actum attract more quality lenders, which is good for growth in transactions and revenues,” Lipari said.
Overall, the deal “allows net new customers to start funding in as little as 2-4 weeks, processing ACH payments and paying commissions on the rails that already exist between the two platforms,” an official statement says.
Rapid Finance Has Evolved Into a Three-Piece Business
October 12, 2022
Historically, Rapid Finance has been a lender, but over the last few years the company has expanded into other areas including portfolio servicing and technology. It’s a three-piece business, one that now includes a new wholly owned subsidiary, Thrive.
Thrive is described as an end-to-end digital lending platform that can be used by banks, credit unions, or other organizations to offer small business loans faster and easier to their customers.
Kunal Sehgal, co-founder and CEO at Thrive, said that Thrive’s technology can handle everything “from the application intake, to actual data collation and aggregation, to underwriting to decisioning, to origination to closing, and then servicing as well.”
The product gives Rapid a unique tool in its arsenal, given the company’s background. Will Tumulty, CEO at Rapid Finance, explained that Thrive’s technology will be greatly enhanced by Rapid’s own experience in the lending business.
“If you want to do a partnership with Rapid [through Thrive], you’re not just signing up for software,” Tumulty told deBanked. “You can get software, you can get potentially balance sheet access, you get expertise in servicing and credit management that Rapid has developed over more than 15 years in small business lending. And we think that’s a big difference for companies that are looking for a partner to help them get into the small business lending space.”
The acquisition was announced on October 3rd at American Banker’s Small Business Banking conference and is part of Rapid’s recent corporate rebrand and restructuring, which includes a new logo and website.
