Articles by deBanked Staff
An Amazon Capital Lending Loan
February 2, 2021Amazon’s small business lending business is no small operation. deBanked recently viewed a loan agreement between Amazon Lending and an Amazon seller in which the seller received a loan of $300,000 at an annual interest rate of 15.99%.
In 2019, we estimated that the company had originated $1.5B in small business loans, placing them in the #5 slot on our list, but the company is possibly on track to be #1.
Outgoing President Trump Extends Clemency to Jonathan Braun
January 20, 2021
President Trump issued an executive grant of clemency to Jonathan Braun on Tuesday, commuting his sentence to time served. Braun checked into FCI Otisville last year to continue serving a sentence for a marijuana-related conviction in 2011.
The executive order requests that he be released as fast as possible.
A statement from the White House said that “upon his release, Mr. Braun will seek employment to support his wife and children.”
Transcript and Recording of Major FTC Case Before the US Supreme Court
January 14, 2021Oral arguments took place yesterday in AMG Capital Management, LLC et al. v Federal Trade Commission before the United States Supreme Court. At issue is the debate over whether or not the FTC has the authority to force defendants to disgorge with “illegally obtained” funds when a lawsuit is brought under Section 13(b) of the FTC Act.
Transcript here
MP3 Recording Here
FTC Commissioner Rohit Chopra had reportedly told NBC News last April that he was looking for a systemic solution that would “wipe out” predatory lenders. If the Supreme Court rules against the FTC in this case, that plan could be stymied.
Additional OnDeck Employees Set Their Sights Elsewhere
January 4, 2021On New Year’s Day, OnDeck Head of Business Development Kevin Chin announced he was parting ways with the company and joining Avant. “As we wrap up 2020,” Chin posted on LinkedIn, “I wanted to take a moment to thank all of my colleague at OnDeck as well as Noah Breslow and Cory Campfer for building such an outstanding company with great people and culture.”
Similarly, Matt Cluney, who was VP of Brand and Product Marketing at OnDeck, announced that he was leaving to become Chief Marketing Officer for Yardline Capital. On LinkedIn, he wrote: “New year, new adventures… excited to join Ari Horowitz, Tomo Matsuo, Seth Broman and the rest of the team at Yardline Capital at a time when ecommerce is booming and the opportunity to provide a differentiated growth capital solution for ecommerce sellers is big!” Cluney will be in good company at Yardline with another OnDeck veteran Dennis Chin.
SRS Capital Enters Chapter 7 Bankruptcy
January 4, 2021SRS Capital, a merchant cash advance company based in Long Island, NY, has entered Chapter 7 bankruptcy, according to court documents obtained by deBanked. In September, several of the company’s creditors petitioned for involuntary bankruptcy. Although it was contested by SRS, the Court granted relief under the Code and appointed a trustee.
The primary entity is listed as SRS Capital Funds, Inc.
The company had revenues of $1.5 million in 2020.
The proceedings are ongoing. SRS Capital’s website is presently offline.
Canada’s Top Lending Leaders of 2021
December 16, 2020
The Canadian Lenders Association released its 2021 Leaders in Lending awards. The association is the voice of Canada’s lending ecosystem and represents more than 100 companies in commercial and consumer lending.
All CLA members are vetted and accredited based on their corporate standards
and values. Their role is to support the highest level of lending in Canada,
servicing a wide spectrum of business and consumer borrowers’ growth requirements.
See previous year’s leading lending companies
See previous year’s leading lending executives
2021 Award Winners:
Lending Woman of the Year
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Tiffany Kaminsky | Co-Founder of Symend
Tiffany Kaminsky is the co-founder of Symend, a fintech that uses analytics and behavioural science to create individualized debt recovery programs. The startup, which has offices in Calgary, Toronto and Denver, received USD $52 million in funding earlier this year and plans to hire up to 200 more roles in 2021. |
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Nicole Benson | CEO of Valeyo
Nicole Benson is the President & CEO of Valeyo, a business solutions provider to financial institutions in Canada. Nicole drives every facet of business forward, with a focus on growing, evolving, and innovating Valeyo’s suite of solutions to meet the changing needs of its clients and the financial services industry. |
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Andrea Fiederer | CMO of goeasy
Andrea Fiederer is EVP & CMO of goeasy, a leader in non-prime financial services with over 2000 employees. Andrea is responsible for goeasy’s overall marketing and brand strategy for both the easyhome and easyfinancial business units. |
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Elena Ionenko | Co-Founder of Turnkey Lender
Elena Ionenko is the Co-Founder of Turnkey Lender, a loan origination platform. Under Elena’s leadership, the company has entered 50+ local markets, raised over $3.5 million in venture capital and launched regional offices all over the globe. |
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Minal Shankar | CEO of Easly
Minal is the CEO of Easly, a SR&ED financing firm. This year Minal has doubled Easly’s capital under management & customer base. Prior to leading Easly, Minal was an investment manager for the VC firm Northgate Capital and an associate in the Technology Investment Banking group at J.P. Morgan Chase. Minal holds an MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business. |
Fintech Innovator the Year
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Flinks
Flinks is a data company that empowers businesses to connect their users with the financial services they want. |
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REPAY
REPAY is a leading provider of vertically-integrated payment solutions. |
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VoPay
VoPay seamlessly connects you to the banking ecosystem enabling anyone to offer efficient and simple bank account payment processing. |
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Fundmore
FundMore.ai is an automated underwriting system that uses machine learning to streamline the Pre-Funding process for loans. |
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Provenir
Provenir offers a suite of risk analytics tools for lenders to make adjudication faster and simpler. |
Executive of the Year
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Jason Mullins | CEO of goeasy
Jason Mullins is the President & CEO of goeasy, a leader in non-prime financial services with over 2000 employees. Since joining goeasy in 2010, Jason has helped the company scale to $1 billion in market capitalization with compound earnings growth of 28%. Jason is a recipient of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 Award. |
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Wayne Pommen | CEO of PayBright
Wayne Pommen is the CEO and Founder of PayBright, a Canadian leader in the BNPL space. His firm has partnered with 7,000 domestic and international retailers, and has approved over $1 billion in consumer credit. This year PayBright was acquired by Affirm in a $340 million transaction. |
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Lawrence Krimker | CEO of Simply Group
At just 33 years of age, Lawrence Krimker has built Simply Group into a category leader in home equipment financing. This year his firm acquired competitors Dealnet & SNAP Financial in transactions that totalled over $750 million and brought his firm to $1.45 billion in assets under management. |
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Andrew Graham | CEO of Borrowell
Andrew Graham is the CEO and Co-Founder of Borrowell, Canada’s first fintech to provide free credit monitoring. This year Andrew launched Borrowell Boost to help the 53% of Canadians living paycheck to paycheck meet their bill payments. |
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Maria Soklis | President of Cox Automotive
In the 6 years that Maria Soklis has led Cox Automotive Canada, the company has become a category leader in software and financing solutions for consumers and dealers across the country. Maria has also left her mark with initiatives that promote diverse and inclusive workplaces, and this year signed the BlackNorth Initiative CEO Pledge. |
Emerging Lending Platform of the Year
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Moselle
Moselle is a digital platform that simplifies the importing workflow for small medium business owners. |
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Moves
Moves is a financial services platform for independent “gig” workers. |
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Vendor Lender
VendorLender is Canada’s first POS lender for dealers in the equipment finance space. |
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Lendle
Lendle is Canada’s first interest free credit provider. |
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goPeer
goPeer helps everyday Canadians to achieve financial freedom through Peer-to-Peer Lending |
Small Business Lending Platform of the Year
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Merchant Growth
Merchant Growth is a leading Canadian financial technology company that specializes in small business financing. Over the past decade, Merchant Growth has supported Canadian businesses with hundreds of millions of dollars in growth financing. |
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Loop
Launched this year, Loop builds credit & payment products specifically for online merchants. The company is operated by the LendingLoop team that popularized P2P lending in Canada. |
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Thinking Capital
Thinking Capital is one of Canada’s best known fintech lenders to the small business sector. This year the firm has forged relationships with multiple Credit Unions and hit $1 billion in loans deployed. |
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OnDeck
Since its launch in 2015, OnDeck Canada has |
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Clearbanc
Canadian based Clearbanc is the world’s largest e-commerce funder. Their data-driven approach takes the bias out of decision making. Clearbanc has funded 8x more female founders than traditional VC. |
Consumer Lending Platform of the Year
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Flexiti
Flexiti is a leader in point of sale financing for retailers and has been named one of Canada’s fastest growing companies two years straight. |
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CHICC
CHICC is one of the country’s leading rental & homeimprovement financing companies. |
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Marble Financial
Marble uses fintech to empower Canadians to improve their credit score, manage debt, and budget to achieve financial goals. |
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PayBright
PayBright is one of Canada’s leading buy now, pay later providers. This year the firm was acquired by BNPL giant, Affirm for $340 million. |
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goeasy
Canada’s leading alternative financial services provider servicing non-prime Canadians through its easyhome and easyfinancial divisions. |
Auto Lending Platform of the Year
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GoTo Loans
GoTo Loans is a fintech lender focused on helping consumers access the equity from their vehicle and the leading provider in Canada for automotive repair loans. |
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Auto Capital Canada
AutoCapital Canada is a national auto finance company that works with dealer partners to help clients finance the purchase of new and used vehicles. This year the firm acquired competitor Rifco. |
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Carfinco
The Western Canada based lender is a leader in non-prime lending to the auto sector. |
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Canada Drives
Canada Drives is a leader in fintech auto lending. This year the firm hit over 400 employees and 1 million transactions, servicing consumers across Canada, the US, and the UK. |
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Clutch
Clutch aims to bring speed and convenience to used car sales by taking the experience completely online. The fintech raised a $7 million round this year from Real Ventures. |
Technology Lending Platform of the Year
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BDC
Launched only five years ago, BDC’s Tech Group has become a leader in lending to Canadian technology entrepreneurs. |
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TIMIA
TIMIA is a specialty finance company that provides growth capital to technology companies in exchange for payments based on monthly revenue. |
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Flow Capital
Flow Capital Corp. is a diversified alternative asset investor, specializing in providing minimally dilutive capital to high-growth businesses. |
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Venbridge
Venbridge is a Canadian finance company offering non-dilutive venture debt, SR&ED financing, and tax credit consulting services. |
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SVB
SVB has lead the technology lending movement for 35 years. The firm opened their first Canadian office last year. |
Fintech Vets Make Move to Yardline Capital
December 11, 2020
After Yardline Capital burst into the growth capital space for e-commerce sellers, two fintech vets have recently announced a move to the company.
Seth Broman, formerly Senior Vice President of Business Development at Kapitus, announced he had become Chief Revenue Officer of Yardline Capital.
Dennis Chin, formerly in capital markets for OnDeck, announced on LinkedIn that he had become Head of Strategic Initiatives for Yardline Capital.
On LinkedIn, Broman wrote, “Over the last 14 years, I have seen SMB lending and alternative financing grow and adapt time and time again. Innovation and technology have transformed the industry and continue to do so daily. I have seen firsthand billions and billions of dollars propel SMBs and along with the growth of those companies, the industry itself continues to evolve. With that, I’m very excited to share with my friends, family, colleagues and network that I have joined Tomo Matsuo and Ari Horowitz to build Yardline – providing value-added capital solutions for ecommerce sellers to work smarter & grow faster.”
LendingClub P2P Investors Will Be Able to Transfer Funds to Founder Savings Account
December 11, 2020
When Lending Club retires its peer-to-peer lending platform on December 31st, users will have the option to transfer their remaining funds to Radius Bank into something called a Founder Savings Account. The company acquired Radius Bank in February this year and has communicated that its efforts have been dedicated to this initiative.
As part of this shift, peers that were part of their soon-to-be discontinued platfrom will be eligible for a “Founder” Savings account.
“We will let you know of the interest rate at launch,” Lending Club’s FAQ says on the matter. “You can expect that it will be a compelling rate, as an exclusive way to thank our investors for their dedication to our community.”
At present, a standard “high-yield” savings account at Radius Bank earns up to .25% APY.
The company acknowledes that not everyone will want to become a banking customer. “If you don’t choose to open a Founder Savings account, your Notes account cash position will continue to build until you transfer those funds to another financial institution.”
Bankrate awarded Radius with the title of “Best online bank of 2020.”
