Articles by deBanked Staff

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NYC Touts its Revenue-Based Loan Program

September 17, 2026
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“Traditional loans don’t work for all businesses, especially those businesses whose revenues change with the seasons,” said Kenny Minaya, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Small Business Services. “That’s why the NYC Future Fund offers loans starting at $25,000 with lower interest rates and flexible repayment options that adjust with your revenue.”

Since Minaya and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced the city’s new revenue-based financing initiative in March, Minaya has touted it as one of New York’s signature small business lifelines.

In a conference hosted by the Dominican American Chamber of Commerce this past July, Minaya told the audience that the Mayor and he had launched the revenue-based loan program themselves. “This is a program for small businesses whose revenues fluctuate throughout the year,” he said.

On the official website that explains the benefits, it says “Unlike a traditional term loan, a revenue-based loan enables better cash flow management as principal repayments are based on a percentage of monthly revenue instead of fixed payments. When revenue is higher, payments increase, when revenue is lower, payments decrease.”

Marketing for the program does not disclose an APR, but instead refers to two separate costs, an “annual interest rate” and a “3% origination fee.”

Mid-year Signals in SMB Financing

September 15, 2026
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This year has been a roller coaster. Here are some of the big mid-year headlines to consider about the direction of where things are going:

Events
9/14/26 Enova: Withdrew its application to acquire Grasshopper Bank
8/28/26 Stripe: Withdrew its bid to acquire PayPal
8/14/26 Lendio: Macro-market conditions were difficult in Q2
7/29/26 LendingTree: SMB Lending Business Softened in Q2

Growth
8/25/26 Intuit: Revenue growth continues to be driven by working capital loans to small businesses
8/6/26 Nerdwallet: [SMB] loans is growing year-over-year
8/5/26 Shopify: [Shopify] Capital was a larger driver this quarter
7/30/26 Lightspeed: MCA business expanding

Capital Markets
9/15/26 Forward Financing: Inks $1.8B forward flow agreement
8/18/26 Clearco: Secures $100M
7/27/26 InterVest Capital: acquires Kapitus
7/16/26 Forward Financing: Secures $525M
7/10/26 Spartan Capital: Secures $160M
6/15/26 Fora Financial: $130M Securitization
6/8/26 Byzfunder: announces $170M inaugural ABS
5/27/26 Mulligan Funding: $100M ABS
5/12/26 Credibly: $260M securitization

DailyFunder Surpasses 14 Years in Existence

September 14, 2026
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dailyfunderThe DailyFunder forum, the largest online small business finance community, recently surpassed 14 years in operation. The forum has generated more than 215,000 posts and has more than 18,000 members. It has regularly surpassed two million page views per year.

The merchant cash advance sub-forum remains the most popular, generating half of all posts since inception. Real estate lending and business lending are also very active.

The most active demographic on the forum is a business finance broker. Membership to the forum has been free since it was founded in 2012.

Upstart: Lending’s oldest truism is not true for us

September 10, 2026
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“At AI Day last year, I told you that lending’s oldest truism assumes the technology stays constant: that you can’t have growth, strong credit performance, and profitability all at once,” said Upstart CEO Paul Gu during the Q2 earnings call. “That’s not the case for Upstart. This quarter, we delivered all three: we grew, our credit performed, and we expanded margins. We didn’t have to trade one for another, and that combination — not any single metric in isolation — is the clearest evidence that our AI advantage is real and compounding.”

Upstart offers personal loans, auto loans, and home loans. The company said that it would double down in the second half of the year with the understanding that its “core personal loan” business is its “superpower” with “unusually strong margins.”

Upstart also received conditional approved by the OCC to establish its own bank. The company said that “the charter would allow Upstart to reduce operational, regulatory, and financial complexity for itself as well as for its third-party capital partners.”

Upstart is one of many fintechs in the process of applying for a bank charter or acquiring a chartered bank.

Quickbooks Capital Originated $1.9B in Business Loans Last Quarter

September 2, 2026
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Intuit’s Quickbooks Capital originated $1.9 billion in business loans for its 4th quarter in FY 2026, which ended July 31.

“In capital, revenue growth continues to be driven by working capital loans to small businesses,” said Sandeep Aujla, Intuit’s CFO during the quarterly earnings call. “Loan volume through QuickBooks Capital increased 54% to $1.9 billion this quarter. The Q4 deceleration in capital revenue growth is due to a deliberate increase in the mix of loans we sell through our forward flow partners, which have a lower revenue yield.”

Intuit is among the largest online small business lenders in the country.

deBanked’s Free Open Bar on Long Island – September 8

August 24, 2026
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deBanked is returning to Long Island for its annual FREE Open Bar this September 8th in Huntington. This event is open to brokers, funders, lenders, lead generators, tech companies, attorneys, collectors, bankers, investors, and more!

Crabtree’s is located at 330 New York Avenue in Huntington. Space is limited so make sure you register to attend early HERE.

debanked long island 2026

Last year’s open bar in Huntington had a registered guest list of 300 people!

Soliciting Investments into an MCA or Business Lender on Behalf of Someone Else? Be Careful

August 19, 2026
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A recent civil lawsuit brought by the SEC against the orchestrator of an MCA funder-turned-Ponzi scheme came packed with claims against two other individuals who “acted as unregistered brokers.”

“The two were alleged to have solicited investors, explained the investment terms to those investors, vouched for the merits of the investment opportunity, facilitated the collection of investor funds, and received transaction-based compensation without ever registering as a broker-dealer with the Commission or associating with a registered broker-dealer,” the complaint alleges.

Unlike some syndication models, where investors pick and choose the individual deals they want to invest in, the defendants here told investors that the owner of the funding company would select which deals to fund with their money on his own. Investors were not entitled to know the names of the merchants due to confidentiality. Overall, the funder solicited at least 87 investors, raising at least $47 million, and promised fixed returns of between 22% and 53% on one-year investments and between 9% and 10% on shorter, two- to three-month investments.

The owner, who just pleaded guilty to wire fraud, misappropriated at least $11 million for himself—to pay gambling debts, personal credit card bills, home renovation expenses, and mortgage and car payments. He also used investor funds to pay earlier investors. While he did fund some deals, there were not that many. The scheme was able to go on for five years before collapsing in mid-2023.

The brokers who marketed the investment opportunity received commissions ranging from 5% to 25% of the amounts they brought in. They personally face claims that they violated Section 15(a) of the Exchange Act and should be enjoined.

The SEC complaint describes each of their violations “as a natural person not associated with a broker or dealer which is a person other than a natural person, made use the mails or any means or instrumentality of interstate commerce to effect transactions in, or to induce or attempt to induce the purchase or sale of, any security without being registered with the Commission as a broker-dealer.”

Figure: Business Loan Brokers Increasingly Arranging Deals Using Home Equity

August 14, 2026
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“What’s happening is people who have that home equity are using that to fund small business financing,” said Figure CEO Michael Tannenbaum on the company’s Q2 earnings call. “That’s a new avenue for us. We’re lapping about a year of us launching that, and it’s already grown to a meaningfully significant portion of our volume…we’re now signing up people that would historically not have been in the mortgage business whatsoever. They’re business loan originators, brokers, Fintech SMBs, but they’re able to use Figure because we make it so simple and easy and inexpensive.”

Figure has also made waves in the SMB market recently with the addition of an SMB loan pool to its Democratized Prime platform. The pool initially consisted primarily of loans originated by Credibly.

“The partners originating home equity loans for business purpose are also generating opportunities for Democratized Prime, as the SMB market has very little capital market standardization, and we therefore launched our SMB pool officially in July,” Tannenbaum said during the Q2 call.

Figure ultimately wants lenders to be able to access warehouse financing through Democratized Prime and then sell the loans they originate to investors through Figure Connect.