Articles by deBanked Staff

Merchant Infamous For Safari-Themed Home, Has Died

November 18, 2019

The saga of Michael Willhoit has come to an end. deBanked wrote about Willhoit in December 2018 when we learned he defaulted on nearly half a million dollars in merchant cash advance transactions and was sued by banks over $4.5 million in bad loan deals. This past June he was also indicted on 36 counts of bank fraud.

But on Sunday, Willhoit passed away of natural causes, the Springfield News-Leader reported. He was 66.

Willhoit’s local notoriety gained somewhat national interest thanks to his fully-customized multimillion dollar safari-themed home, dubbed “The African Queen.” Willhoit told a News-Leader reporter in 2016 that he spent $3 million renovating the Sprinfield, MO property including $400,000 for a 900-square-foot wood floor and $300,000 for landscaping. Other notable items on the property included:

Two roaring lion masks
Two 7-foot tall hand-carved wooden tusks
An eight-legged genuine impala horn zebra-hide chair
A 15-foot African warrior statue
A 3,000-pound (approximately) bronze rhino
Four gazelle taxidermy mounts
A baboon, full-body mount

Willhoit’s criminal trial was scheduled for July 2020.

You can still view a virtual video tour of his home below:

IOU Financial Originated $41.4M in Loans in Q3, Continued Profitability

November 14, 2019

Article by: deBanked Staff

IOU Financial originated $41.4M in business loans in Q3, according to the company’s latest published financial statements. The figure is a modest increase over Q2’s $38.5M. IOU also kept up its trend of profitability with net income $1M.

Shares of IOU, which trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange, are valued at around (CAD) 14 cents and equate to a market cap of approximately (CAD) $14M.

Funding Circle UK Referring Some Large Loan Applicants to Competitors

November 11, 2019

Article by: deBanked Staff

Funding Circle UK has begun to refer applicants seeking an amount above their maximum loan size limit of £500,000 to Iwoca, MarketInvoice and French bank BNP Paribas, The Sunday Times reported. Previously, Funding Circle would just turn them away.

2019 Top 25 Executive Leaders in Lending – Canadian Lenders Association – Presented By BMO

November 11, 2019

Article by: deBanked Staff

The Canadian Lenders Assocation (CLA) received 124 nominations for these awards from leaders in lending across the country. The CLA’s goal is to support access to credit in the Canadian marketplace and champion the companies and entrepreneurs who are leading innovations in this industry.

The Top 25 ﬁnalists in this report represent various innovations in the borrower’s journey from innovations in artiﬁcial intelligence powered credit modelling to breakthroughs in consumer identity management using blockchain technologies. These ﬁnalists also represent solutions for a wide spectrum of borrower maturity and needs, ranging from consumer credit rebuilding all the way to senior debt placements for global technology ventures.

See The Leading Companies Report Here

See The Leading Executives Report Here

	Mark Cashin CEO of myBrokerBee \| Ontario After a career in commercial ﬁnance and being CEO of Transpor, Mark Co-founded myBrokerBee a mortgage broker platform that provides transparency to private lenders and their clients.
	Avinash Chidambaram CEO of Ario Platform \| Ontario Through his experience as Product lead at Interac and Blackberry, Avinash has helped bring together an accomplished and talented group of experts in Data Science, Machine Learning, Security, Software Development to successfully develop this banking services software platform Ario.
	Evan Chrapko CEO of Trust Science \| Alberta Evan is the founder and CEO of Trust Science, a leader in organizing alternative credit data. As a saas founder and CEO, Evan has done over 500mm in startup exits.
	Kevin Clark President of Lendified \| Ontario Kevin is a recognized leader in the ﬁnancial services industry with over 30 years of experience. Kevin has helped create the voice of Canada’s SME lending ecosystem through his leadership of Lendiﬁed and the CLA.
	Jerome Dwight VP of Cox Automotive \| Ontario Jerome established Nextgear Capital in Canada to become the largest specialty ﬁnance company in the automotive sector. Jerome is a Globe & Mail 40 under 40 winner and previously lead RBC’s international wealth management, private banking and asset servicing business.
	Saul Fine CEO of Innovative Assessmer \| Israel Saul is a licensed organizational psychologist and psychometrician, and a former lecturer in psychology at the University of Haifa. Saul is a global leader in the use of psychometric data for credit scoring and ﬁnancial inclusion.
	David Gens CEO of Merchant Growth \| BC David is the Founder and CEO of Merchant Growth, which grew from its humble beginnings in his apartment to ofﬁces in both Toronto and Vancouver. David now leads one of Canada’s largest online small business ﬁnance companies.
	Bryan Jaskolka COO of CMI \| Ontario Nominated for the 2018 Mortgage Broker of the Year, Bryan Jaskolka is an expert in Canadian mortgage ﬁnancing with a particular focus on the alternative lending space and mortgage investing.
	Peter Kalen CEO of Flexiti \| Ontario Peter is a leader in Canada’s retail ﬁnancing market. Before founding Flexiti, Peter was in senior leadership positions at Citi, PC Financial, and Sears Canada. Flexiti was recently named #7 on the Deloitte Fast50.
	Yves-Gabriel Leboeuf CEO of Flinks \| Quebec Yves-Gabriel Leboeuf is the co-founder and CEO of Flinks. Under his leadership, Flinks has become a Canadian leader in banking data enablement.
	Derek Manuge CEO of Corl \| Ontario Derek, also known as the “the quant from Canada” is the founder of the data-driven venture ﬁrm, Corl. Corl is one of Canada’s leaders in the use revenue-share ﬁnancing models.
	Keren Moynihan CEO of Boss Insights \| Ontario Keren Moynihan is co-founder and CEO of Boss Insights, a company that uses big data and AI to accelerate lending from months to minutes. With a Joint JD/MBA, Keren has a diverse background as a commercial banker, wealth manager and former founder of an impact startup.
	Jason Mullins CEO of Goeasy \| Ontario Jason is President and CEO of goeasy, a publicly listed consumer lender. Jason has lead the company to become one of the largest and most innovative lenders in the country.
	Paul Pitcher CEO of SharpShooter Funding \| Ontario After founding First Down Funding, an alternative lending ﬁrm for SMEs in Baltimore, Paul expanded his business to Canada through the subsidiary Sharpshooter Funding.
	Brendan Playford & Cate Rung Co-Founders of Pngme \| USA Cate, ex-Uber and Brendan, a blockchain and agro-ﬁnance entrepreneur are the co-founders of Pngme, an alternative lending platform for ﬁnancial institutions in emerging markets who serve Micro, Small, and Medium-sized Enterprises.
	Wayne Pommen CEO of Paybright \| Ontario Wayne is the President and CEO of PayBright. Wayne is also a director of IOU Financial Inc and of HBC. Previously, Wayne was a Principal at TorQuest Partners, one of Canada’s leading private equity ﬁrms, and a management consultant with Bain & Company in the UK, the US, and Canada.
	Adam Reeds CEO of Ledn \| Ontario Adam is a pioneer and thought leader in the digital asset backed lending space. Ledn is focused on building innovative ﬁnancial products in the emerging digital asset space, with a focused mission to help people save more in bitcoin.
	Adam Rice CEO of LoanConnect \| Ontario Adam has played a pivotal role in building one of the largest online markets in Canada for unsecured loans.
	Mark Ruddock CEO of BFS Capital \| Ontario Mark is an experienced international CEO with two successful exits and over 20 years of experience at the helm of VC backed technology and ﬁntech startups. In 2019 Mark announced BFS Capital’s expansion to Canada with a new 50 engineer data science hub in the heart of Toronto.
	Vlad Sherbatov President of Smarter Loans \| Ontario Vlad Co-founded Smarter Loans in 2016 with the goal of helping Canadians make smarter ﬁnancial decisions. Since then, Vlad has grown the platform into one of the go-to resources for Canadian borrowers.
	Steven Uster CEO of FundThrough \| Ontario Steven is the Co-Founder & CEO of FundThrough, an invoice funding service that helps business owners eliminate “the wait” associated with payment terms by giving them the power and ﬂexibility to get their invoices paid when they want, with one click, and in as little as 24 hours.
	Dmitry Voronenko CEO of Turnkey Lender\| Singapore Dmitry, CEO and Co-founder of TurnKey Lender, holds a PhD in Artiﬁcial Intelligence. Dmitry was recently named SFA’s Fintech Leader of the year.
	Neil Wechsler CEO of Ondeck Canada \| Quebec Neil brieﬂy practiced law before becoming President and CEO of Optimal Group Inc. where he grew the company from a start-up to a leading NASDAQ-listed self-checkout and payments company. Neil later co-founded Evolocity, which in 2019 became OnDeck Canada.
	Michael Wendland CEO of Refresh \| BC Michael has led Refresh Financial’s rapid growth since its founding in 2013, including a recent ranking of number 40 on Deloitte’s Fast 500.

2019 Top 25 Company Leaders in Lending – Canadian Lenders Association – Presented By BMO

November 11, 2019

Article by: deBanked Staff

See The Leading Companies Report Here

See The Leading Executives Report Here

	BDC The 75 year old ﬁrm is the only Canadian bank devoted exclusively to supporting entrepreneurs.
	Borrowell Borrowell helps Canadians make great decisions about credit. They were the ﬁrst company in Canada to offer credit scores for free, without applying for credit, and currently has over 800,000 users. Eva Wong and Andrew Graham were the joint recipients our the CLA’s awards in 2018.
	Clearbanc Clearbanc offers a new approach to capital access for entrepreneurs that uses AI to determine funding terms with a focus on unit economics and repayment through revenue share as a way to get founders access to the capital they need to fuel their growth.
	CreditSnap CreditSnap is a best in class pre-qualiﬁcation and cross selling engine to deliver highly relevant pre-qualiﬁed loan offers to CreditSnap banks and CUs.
	Dealnet Capital Dealnet Capital services the home and retail sectors providing end-to-end ﬁnancing plus innovative technology and communication solutions.
	Espresso Capital Since 2009, Espresso Capital has provided over 230 early and growth stage technology companies with founder friendly capital. Espresso offers lines of credit and term loans to enable entrepreneurs to grow their businesses without dilution, board seats, or personal guarantees.
	Financeit Financeit is a market leading point-of-sale consumer ﬁnancing provider, servicing the home improvement, vehicle and retail industries.
	First West Capital First West Capital is a leader in Canadian mid-market business funding. First West Capital helps ventures acquire and transition through innovative junior capital ﬁnancing.
	Home Trust Home Trust Company is one of Canada’s leading trust companies. Home Trust offers Canadians a wide range of ﬁnancial product and service alternatives, including mortgages, Visa cards, deposits and retail credit services.
	Inverite Inverite is the ﬁrst Canadian designed, developed and focused real-time bank veriﬁcation service. With coverage for over 240 Canadian FIs.
	IOU Financial Based in Montreal, IOU Financial provides small businesses throughout the U.S. and Canada access to the capital they need to seize growth opportunities quickly.
	Lending Loop Lending Loop is Canada’s ﬁrst and only regulated peer-to-peer lending marketplace focused on small business.
	Magical Credit Magical Credit has been helping Canadians consumers get approved for quick and simple short term personal loans since 2014. They offer personal loans up to $10,000 regardless of the borrowers past ﬁnancial issues or credit.
	Manzil Manzil is the market leader in the manufacturing and distribution of Islamic Financial products for Canadians who wish to balance material pursuits with their spiritual obligations.
	Marble Financial Marble Financial uses smart technology and socially responsible lending practices to help Canadians rebuild credit once their past debt has been settled by a consumer proposal.
	Owl owl.co is a customer insight engine that helps ﬁnancial institutions make better decisions. By connecting to tens of thousands of trusted data sources, Owl is able to instantly aggregate and synthesize millions of data points to learn more about customers and entities.
	Paays Paays is a Canadian eCommerce ﬁnancing solution for a new generation of digital consumers seeking “point of inspiration” ﬁnancing.
	PayPal Canada PayPal Canada recently announced a new SMB loan offering in Canada – a quick application process that can approve an applicant in minutes and transfer funds in one to two business days.
	Progressa Named by CB Insights to the 2018 Fintech 250, a list of the world’s top ﬁntech startups, Progressa is Canada’s fastest growing ﬁnancial technology lender focused on changing the way pay cheque to pay cheque Canadians access and build credit.
	Shopify Capital In its effort to become a one-stop e-commerce shop, Shopify Capital allows Shopify business owners to secure funding through revenue sharing on daily sales.
	Silicon Valley Bank For more than 35 years, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) has helped innovative companies and their investors move bold ideas forward, fast. SVB provides a full range of ﬁnancial services and expertise to companies of all sizes in innovation centers around the world.
	Spring Financial Spring Financial is a subsidiary of Canada Drives, one of the leading brands for auto ﬁnancing in Canada. Spring provides accessible solutions for Canadians to establish a positive payment history.
	Thinking Capital Thinking Capital is a leader in the Canadian Online Lending space, leveraging technology to be at the forefront of the FinTech industry. Since 2006, they have helped more than 14,000 small-to-medium sized Canadian businesses reach their full potential
	Uplift Uplift’s mission is to make travel more accessible, affordable and rewarding by enabling travel providers such as JetBlue, American Airlines, and United to offer ﬂexible payments to their customers.
	Venbridge Venbridge is a leading Canadian venture debt ﬁrm. Venbridge provides SR&ED, grant and digital media ﬁnancing and consulting.

Presented By:

Selecting a Third-Party Commercial Collection Agency

November 8, 2019

Article by: deBanked Staff

It’s said that anyone can lend money out but the hard part is getting paid back. The latter part is full of nuance, a 32-page white paper authored by Minnesota-based Dedicated Commercial Recovery (Dedicated) reveals.

“Choosing a third-party commercial collection agency is a matter of comparing potential returns and risks in order to achieve an optimal balance of both,” the report opines. “The purpose of this paper is to present one possible outline for making such a balanced choice.”

While it may be views that Dedicated espouses, the report stops short of self-promotion while raising valuable questions that anybody contracting with a commercial collection agency would benefit from considering. After all, even if third-party collections inherently suggests that relations between the original parties have broken down, the collections experience can set the final tone on how a customer feels about your brand.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg, according to the report. The collections process can have legal implications, present operational challenges, and ultimately impact the efficient orderly flow of business.

TO LEARN MORE, YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THE FULL WHITE PAPER HERE

COJ Enforcer Gets COJ’d By City of New York And Is Forced to Resign NYC Marshal Position

November 7, 2019

Article by: deBanked Staff

A New York City marshal at the center of a controversial Bloomberg News story series last year about “predatory lending,” has resigned after a city probe, the City of New York announced.

Marshal Vadim Barbarovich was allegedly a prolific enforcer of New York judgments obtained by confession. After irregularities were discovered by the Department of Investigation with how he served levies, the City of New York formally levied penalties of their own against him that include a return of fees and poundage earned from 92 improperly served levies, his resignation, and a $300,000 fine.

The City agreed to suspend the full amount of the monetary fine provided he complies with an orderly wind-down of his business by March 20th. Barbarovich, in a twisted circumstance of irony, had to guarantee full immediate payment in the instance he did not comply…by signing a Confession of Judgment.

The investigation into Barbarovich began in May 2018, 4 months before Bloomberg News published their story, details published by the City reveal.

Earlier this year, New York State passed a law restricting COJs from being entered against non-New York state debtors.

PIRS Capital, Fundera Make Crains’s Fast 50

November 7, 2019

Article by: deBanked Staff

Crain’s New York Business has revealed its Fast 50 companies. Among them are Fundera (#22 with 720% 3-year growth) and PIRS Capital (#50 with 230% 3-year growth).

Crain’s says that to be considered for the Fast 50, firms had to be at least four years old, generate at least $10 million in 2018 revenue and be headquartered in the New York metropolitan area, which includes the five boroughs; Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester counties; and Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Morris and Union counties in New Jersey.

#1 on the list was Hoboken-based Bear Mattress with 3-year growth of 13,481%.

You can view the list here.

	Mark Cashin CEO of myBrokerBee \| Ontario After a career in commercial ﬁnance and being CEO of Transpor, Mark Co-founded myBrokerBee a mortgage broker platform that provides transparency to private lenders and their clients.
	Avinash Chidambaram CEO of Ario Platform \| Ontario Through his experience as Product lead at Interac and Blackberry, Avinash has helped bring together an accomplished and talented group of experts in Data Science, Machine Learning, Security, Software Development to successfully develop this banking services software platform Ario.
	Evan Chrapko CEO of Trust Science \| Alberta Evan is the founder and CEO of Trust Science, a leader in organizing alternative credit data. As a saas founder and CEO, Evan has done over 500mm in startup exits.
	Kevin Clark President of Lendified \| Ontario Kevin is a recognized leader in the ﬁnancial services industry with over 30 years of experience. Kevin has helped create the voice of Canada’s SME lending ecosystem through his leadership of Lendiﬁed and the CLA.
	Jerome Dwight VP of Cox Automotive \| Ontario Jerome established Nextgear Capital in Canada to become the largest specialty ﬁnance company in the automotive sector. Jerome is a Globe & Mail 40 under 40 winner and previously lead RBC’s international wealth management, private banking and asset servicing business.
	Saul Fine CEO of Innovative Assessmer \| Israel Saul is a licensed organizational psychologist and psychometrician, and a former lecturer in psychology at the University of Haifa. Saul is a global leader in the use of psychometric data for credit scoring and ﬁnancial inclusion.
	David Gens CEO of Merchant Growth \| BC David is the Founder and CEO of Merchant Growth, which grew from its humble beginnings in his apartment to ofﬁces in both Toronto and Vancouver. David now leads one of Canada’s largest online small business ﬁnance companies.
	Bryan Jaskolka COO of CMI \| Ontario Nominated for the 2018 Mortgage Broker of the Year, Bryan Jaskolka is an expert in Canadian mortgage ﬁnancing with a particular focus on the alternative lending space and mortgage investing.
	Peter Kalen CEO of Flexiti \| Ontario Peter is a leader in Canada’s retail ﬁnancing market. Before founding Flexiti, Peter was in senior leadership positions at Citi, PC Financial, and Sears Canada. Flexiti was recently named #7 on the Deloitte Fast50.
	Yves-Gabriel Leboeuf CEO of Flinks \| Quebec Yves-Gabriel Leboeuf is the co-founder and CEO of Flinks. Under his leadership, Flinks has become a Canadian leader in banking data enablement.
	Derek Manuge CEO of Corl \| Ontario Derek, also known as the “the quant from Canada” is the founder of the data-driven venture ﬁrm, Corl. Corl is one of Canada’s leaders in the use revenue-share ﬁnancing models.
	Keren Moynihan CEO of Boss Insights \| Ontario Keren Moynihan is co-founder and CEO of Boss Insights, a company that uses big data and AI to accelerate lending from months to minutes. With a Joint JD/MBA, Keren has a diverse background as a commercial banker, wealth manager and former founder of an impact startup.
	Jason Mullins CEO of Goeasy \| Ontario Jason is President and CEO of goeasy, a publicly listed consumer lender. Jason has lead the company to become one of the largest and most innovative lenders in the country.
	Paul Pitcher CEO of SharpShooter Funding \| Ontario After founding First Down Funding, an alternative lending ﬁrm for SMEs in Baltimore, Paul expanded his business to Canada through the subsidiary Sharpshooter Funding.
	Brendan Playford & Cate Rung Co-Founders of Pngme \| USA Cate, ex-Uber and Brendan, a blockchain and agro-ﬁnance entrepreneur are the co-founders of Pngme, an alternative lending platform for ﬁnancial institutions in emerging markets who serve Micro, Small, and Medium-sized Enterprises.
	Wayne Pommen CEO of Paybright \| Ontario Wayne is the President and CEO of PayBright. Wayne is also a director of IOU Financial Inc and of HBC. Previously, Wayne was a Principal at TorQuest Partners, one of Canada’s leading private equity ﬁrms, and a management consultant with Bain & Company in the UK, the US, and Canada.
	Adam Reeds CEO of Ledn \| Ontario Adam is a pioneer and thought leader in the digital asset backed lending space. Ledn is focused on building innovative ﬁnancial products in the emerging digital asset space, with a focused mission to help people save more in bitcoin.
	Adam Rice CEO of LoanConnect \| Ontario Adam has played a pivotal role in building one of the largest online markets in Canada for unsecured loans.
	Mark Ruddock CEO of BFS Capital \| Ontario Mark is an experienced international CEO with two successful exits and over 20 years of experience at the helm of VC backed technology and ﬁntech startups. In 2019 Mark announced BFS Capital’s expansion to Canada with a new 50 engineer data science hub in the heart of Toronto.
	Vlad Sherbatov President of Smarter Loans \| Ontario Vlad Co-founded Smarter Loans in 2016 with the goal of helping Canadians make smarter ﬁnancial decisions. Since then, Vlad has grown the platform into one of the go-to resources for Canadian borrowers.
	Steven Uster CEO of FundThrough \| Ontario Steven is the Co-Founder & CEO of FundThrough, an invoice funding service that helps business owners eliminate “the wait” associated with payment terms by giving them the power and ﬂexibility to get their invoices paid when they want, with one click, and in as little as 24 hours.
	Dmitry Voronenko CEO of Turnkey Lender\| Singapore Dmitry, CEO and Co-founder of TurnKey Lender, holds a PhD in Artiﬁcial Intelligence. Dmitry was recently named SFA’s Fintech Leader of the year.
	Neil Wechsler CEO of Ondeck Canada \| Quebec Neil brieﬂy practiced law before becoming President and CEO of Optimal Group Inc. where he grew the company from a start-up to a leading NASDAQ-listed self-checkout and payments company. Neil later co-founded Evolocity, which in 2019 became OnDeck Canada.
	Michael Wendland CEO of Refresh \| BC Michael has led Refresh Financial’s rapid growth since its founding in 2013, including a recent ranking of number 40 on Deloitte’s Fast 500.