Articles by Press Release
Bizfi Appoints Alternative Finance and Payments Veteran John Donovan as CEO
October 24, 2016
New York – October 24, 2016 – Bizfi (www.bizfi.com), a leading fintech company with a platform that combines aggregation, funding and a marketplace for small businesses, announced its board of directors has appointed John Donovan as the Company’s chief executive officer (CEO). Donovan is a 30-year veteran in the payments and alternative finance industry serving both small businesses and consumers.
Over the course of his career, Donovan helped pave the way for the development of the fintech and alternative finance industry. Having worked for nearly two decades with MasterCard, Donovan was integral to conceiving and developing new products, launching a global card program and growing the Company’s global electronic payments offerings. As one of the founding employees of Lending Club, Donovan helped create the direct-to-consumer fintech industry that has transformed the way consumers and financial institutions interact with one another. During his tenure at Lending Club, he held various roles including chief operating officer, board member and executive vice president of corporate development.
“Bizfi is transforming the way small businesses are accessing growth and working capital. John Donovan brings a unique combination of industry-related expertise, strategic vision and proven management experience which will accelerate this transformation and further enhance our market-leading position in the fintech space,” said Tom Breitling, Bizfi Chairman.
“I have known the Bizfi team for many years and have been extremely impressed with the market presence the company has established in the fintech space,” said John Donovan. “I have spent my career building and operating companies, conceptualizing new products and increasing shareholder value. It is clear that the Bizfi team have built the single best way for small businesses to access capital in a quick, frictionless and simple way.”
With originations growing over 35% over the past year, Bizfi continues to demonstrate record volumes, and is on track to approach nearly $600 million of fundings this year, highlighting the strength and scalability of the overall platform and the company’s leading position in the fintech industry.
Since its creation in 2005, Bizfi has provided more than $1.9 billion in capital to more than 33,000 small business owners. Earlier this year, the Company announced partnerships with Western Independent Bankers (WIB) and the National Directory of Registered Tax Return Preparers & Professionals (PTIN). These partnerships are providing hundreds of thousands of small business owners across the country with access to financing through the Bizfi platform in addition to the ability to visit Bizfi.com, the Company’s lending marketplace.
About Bizfi
Bizfi is the premier fintech company combining aggregation, funding and a participation marketplace on a single platform for small businesses. Founded in 2005, Bizfi and its family of companies have provided in excess of $1.9 billion in financing to more than 33,000 small businesses in a wide variety of industries across the United States.
Bizfi’s connected marketplace instantly provides multiple funding options and real-time pre-approvals to businesses from a wide variety of funding partners. Bizfi’s funding options include short-term financing, franchise financing, lines of credit, equipment financing, medical financing, invoice financing, medium-term loans and long-term loans guaranteed by the U.S. Small Business Administration. The Bizfi API provides a turnkey white label or co-branded solution that easily allows strategic partners to access the Bizfi engine and present their clients with financial offers from Bizfi lenders all while maintaining their customer’s user experience. A process that once took hours, now takes minutes.
Media Contact:
Abbie Sheridan / Kenneth Cousins
KCSA Strategic Communications
asheridan@kcsa.com / kcousins@kcsa.com
212-896-1207 / 212-896-1254
Bizfi Sales:
855-462-4934
bizfisales@bizfi.com
Everlasting Capital Appoints Director of Equipment Finance & Leasing
October 24, 2016
New Hampshire, October 21, 2016 – Everlasting Capital (www.Everlastingcapital.com) announced today that Dan Marquette has joined the team to further develop their growing portfolio of national equipment vendor and direct client accounts. Dan Marquette comes with a wealth of experience within the industry, having spent the last 5 years in the Equipment Finance & Leasing industry where Dan was instrumental in acquiring numerous strategic vendor relationships, along with numerous Investor relationships. Joining in advance of the expected growth of Everlasting Capital’s Equipment Finance & Leasing product, Dan can continue in his success.
Dan joins Everlasting Capital as Director of Equipment Finance & Leasing to continue Everlasting Capitals continued success capturing larger market share providing business financing options to the national SMB market. Dan Comments “My goal as Commercial Equipment Director with Everlasting is to levy the outstanding talent within the organization’s equipment vertical, to increase our strategic partnerships throughout the Vendor, Franchise and Broker space. Ultimately, working in conjunction with our CEO to improve process, product diversification and day-to-day production efficiencies. I couldn’t be more excited about being a part of such a dynamic commercial finance organization.”
Josh Feinberg, President/CEO said “Dan’s wealth of experience and industry knowledge has already made him a key addition to the Everlasting Capital family. We view his appointment as a sign of our commitment to being the leading company is our industry. Our new innovations and the increasing demand from our customer led us to look for an addition to our team who will fit in with our ethos of innovation and exceptional service, and it is very fortunate that we could find someone of Dan’s Caliber to fulfill this role. I’m confident that Dan will play a key role in providing and implementing high quality solutions for our clients”
About Everlasting Capital
Everlasting Capital is a national business finance solutions provider(www.everlastingcapital.com), redefining lending and financing by consistently providing outstanding customer experiences and innovative, world- class services with creative financing options.
Contact
Everlasting Capital
Dan Marquette
603-471-3282 Dmarquette@everlastingcapital.com
Total Merchant Resources Obtains California Lending License
October 17, 2016Piscataway, N.J. – October 17th 2016 – Total Merchant Resources, a Piscataway based business funder and a veteran in the merchant cash advance space, has obtained their California Lending License to capitalize on providing businesses with working capital in the Nation’s most populous state. This new designation allows TMR to quickly and easily extend money to small and medium sized business throughout the Golden State.
“We are thrilled to have access to this very important market. In addition, TMR is now perfectly positioned to do business in California as we await the imminent and necessary regulation of the industry,” said TMR Co-Founder and CEO Jason Reddish.
Reddish and co-founder and CFO Val Pinkhasov, who were recently featured on CNBC’s ‘Shark Tank’, were among the very first business lenders to enter this space. They are a respected name in the industry and thanks to their major prime time TV appearance, have brought attention to this underutilized model for businesses to obtain working capital.
For more information contact Gary Lane, Director of Business Development at (212) 220-9872.
Credibly Secures $70 Million Credit Facility Led by Suntrust Bank
February 2, 2016NEW YORK—February 2, 2016—Credibly, a tech and data-inspired lending platform that makes access to capital for small businesses simple and intuitive, announces the closing of a $70 million credit facility with SunTrust Bank, one of the nation’s largest financial services firms, and Alostar Bank of Commerce, a specialty provider of asset-based loans. SunTrust served as the structuring and administrative agent, committing $50 million, with Alostar coming in as the first participant with a $20 million commitment. The terms of the deal allow for flexibility to increase the committed amount by another $30 million, bringing the total facility potential to $100 million.
An online lending platform that delivers a broad range of short- and long-term capital to satisfy the entire SMB credit spectrum, Credibly has provided access to capital for more than 4,500 businesses in over 300 industries. In the past year, the company has increased revenue 100%, was recognized by Crain’s as one of the 50 fastest growing companies in New York, and made its second consecutive appearance on the Inc. 500 list of the fastest growing private companies in America.
The new credit facility is consistent with Credibly’s three-prong financing strategy: on-balance sheet, whole loan sales, and securitization. The facility more than doubles Credibly’s onbalance sheet funding capacity, accelerating their ability to provide more small businesses with access to affordable capital, regardless of credit profile or life cycle stage.
“Being vetted and validated by a bank partner of SunTrust’s stature is one of our greatest milestones to date, and provides us with one of the lowest costs of capital in the industry,” said Glenn Goldman, CEO of Credibly. “The continued participation from Alostar – our first credit facility lender going back to 2014 – gives us increased flexibility in our product suite, which in turn provides better terms for borrowers and helps us execute on our core philosophy that all small businesses deserve access to right-sized capital.”
“SunTrust is pleased to work with Credibly to assist them in achieving their mission to fuel American entrepreneurship through access to capital,” said Tarun Mehta, Group Head, Financial Institutions Investment Banking at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey.
“The new SunTrust facility is a validation of the strength of the platform and team that Credibly has built. We remain extremely excited about our partnership with Glenn and his team” said Steve Begleiter, Managing Director at Flexpoint Ford, LLC, a private equity firm that added Credibly to its portfolio in 2014.
About Credibly
Founded in 2010 and with offices in Michigan, Arizona, Massachusetts, and New York, Credibly is a best-in-class Fintech platform that leverages data science and analytics to improve the speed, cost, and choice of capital available to small businesses in the United States. Credibly is dedicated to creating a superior borrowing experience that meets the needs of all small businesses, regardless of product need or credit profile. All loans obtained through Credibly are made by WebBank, a Utah-chartered industrial bank and member of the FDIC. Learn more at www.credibly.com.
About SunTrust Banks, Inc.
SunTrust Banks, Inc., one of the nation’s largest financial services organizations, is dedicated to Lighting the Way to Financial Well-Being for its clients and communities. Headquartered in Atlanta, the company serves a broad range of consumer, commercial, corporate and institutional clients. As of September 30, 2015, SunTrust had total assets of $187 billion and total deposits of $146 billion. Through its flagship subsidiary, SunTrust Bank, the company operates an extensive branch and ATM network throughout the high-growth Southeast and Mid-Atlantic States and a full array of technology-based, 24-hour delivery channels. The company also serves clients in selected markets nationally. Its primary businesses include deposit, credit, trust and investment services. Through its various subsidiaries, the company provides mortgage banking, asset management, securities brokerage, and capital market services. Learn more at www.suntrust.com.
About AloStar Bank of Commerce
AloStar Bank of Commerce, with $900 million in assets, is a specialty lender with extensive experience in providing Asset Based Loans to middle market companies. In addition, the bank provides value for depositors, small-to-medium-sized companies and community banks across the country through on-line customer service, and unique lending products and services. Learn more at www.alostarbank.com.
Opus Bank Enters into Strategic Marketing and Referral Agreement with Leading Online Lender to Increase Lending to Small Businesses
January 21, 2016IRVINE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Opus Bank (“Opus”) (NASDAQ: OPB) announced today that it has entered into a marketing and referral agreement with OnDeck® (NYSE: ONDK), the leader in online lending for small business, that will leverage Opus’ 58 retail banking office distribution located in major metro markets up and down the West Coast and OnDeck’s sophisticated credit and funding platform. Entering into this arrangement allows Opus to offer a complete solution to those small businesses that are looking for financing up to $500,000, including a range of term loans and lines of credit powered by a streamlined application process and fast access to the funds.
Stephen H. Gordon, Founding Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and President of Opus Bank, stated, “I am excited to have entered into this marketing and referral agreement with OnDeck. Opus offers an extensive suite of lending products through its Commercial Bank and, while we receive a significant amount of inquiry for small business loans through our Retail Bank, OnDeck has proven to be much more proficient in underwriting and funding these smaller loans. This partnership enables Opus to further leverage and scale its strong market presence by offering small balance financing solutions that it was otherwise not able to efficiently accommodate and, in doing so, generate additional revenues while not using Opus’ balance sheet or capital.”
Gordon concluded, “Since Opus’ inception, it has had an acute focus on providing tailored financial products, services, and solutions to those small and mid-sized commercial businesses, entrepreneurs, real estate investors, and professionals with a vision to expand and grow. Opus is now better positioned to provide faster access to capital to those businesses where the availability of small balance financing has an outsized impact on their ability to expand, create new jobs, and succeed. At Opus Bank, we understand that by providing capital financing to successful entrepreneurs and their businesses, we are enabling those businesses to flourish and, in turn, build healthy, vital, and vibrant communities from the ground up.”
About Opus Bank
Opus Bank is an FDIC insured California-chartered commercial bank with over $6.2 billion of total assets, $5.0 billion of total loans, and $4.9 billion in total deposits as of September 30, 2015. Opus Bank provides high-value, relationship-based banking products, services, and solutions to its clients through its Retail Bank, Commercial Bank, Merchant Bank, and Correspondent Bank. Opus Bank offers a suite of treasury and cash management and depository solutions and a wide range of loan products, including commercial business, healthcare, technology, multifamily residential, commercial real estate, and structured finance, and is an SBA preferred lender. Opus Bank offers commercial escrow services and facilitates 1031 Exchange transactions through its Escrow and Exchange divisions. Opus Bank provides clients with financial and advisory services related to raising equity capital, targeted acquisition and divestiture strategies, general mergers and acquisitions, debt and equity financing, balance sheet restructuring, valuation, strategy, and performance improvement through its Merchant Banking division and its broker-dealer subsidiary, Opus Financial Partners. Opus Bank operates 58 client experience centers, including 33 in California, 22 in the Seattle/Puget Sound region in Washington, two in the Phoenix metropolitan area of Arizona, and one in Portland, Oregon. For additional information about Opus Bank, please visit our website: www.opusbank.com. Opus Bank is an Equal Housing Lender.
Forward-Looking Statements
This release may include forward-looking statements related to Opus’ plans, beliefs and goals, which involve certain risks, and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. The forward-looking information presented in this press release is not a guarantee of future events, and actual events may differ materially from those made in or suggested by the forward-looking information contained in this press release. Forward-looking statements generally can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as “intend” or “expect” or variations thereon or similar terminology. All such statements speak only as of the date made, and Opus undertakes no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
BFS Capital Appoints Ken Murray as Chief Marketing Officer
January 13, 2016BFS Capital (“BFS”), a leading technology-enabled small business financing platform, announced today that it has appointed Ken Murray as its chief marketing officer. Mr. Murray is responsible for customer acquisition and loyalty marketing efforts to drive growth for BFS Capital, including demand generation, communications, marketing analytics, digital, channel development and brand management. With more than 25 years of leadership experience in financial services, Mr. Murray is a recognized thought leader in marketing execution and digital transformation.
“We’re thrilled to welcome Ken aboard to lead our marketing efforts,” said Marc Glazer, CEO and co-founder of BFS. “Ken’s vast knowledge of the entire marketing landscape, digital marketing, customer experience and other strategic skillsets will play an integral role in our next phase of growth. Our mission continues to be focused on responsibly serving small businesses and with the addition of Ken, we fully intend to drive this momentum further into 2016 and beyond.”
BFS is focused on moving forward with the transformation that began in 2015. In July, the company hit the $1 billion milestone in total financings to small businesses and in September the organization rebranded with a new logo, website and name change.
“I’m truly excited for this opportunity to help guide a brand that is an industry leader,” said Mr. Murray. “I’ll be focused on applying my knowledge to the BFS market and on growing the company’s relationships with business owners, investors and industry partners.”
About Ken Murray
Prior to his new position, Mr. Murray served as Head of Digital Products for Farmers Insurance Group in Wilmington, Delaware and Los Angeles, as well as Vice President of Marketing for 21st Century Insurance. Earlier, he was Chief Marketing Officer for J.G. Wentworth, where he was twice nominated for Marketer of the Year by the Direct Response Marketing Association. He also served for 12 years at MBNA America and MBNA Europe, where he held leadership roles in digital marketing, product development and product management. He started his career as a journalist, working at newspapers in Connecticut and Florida before starting his financial services career at Barnett Banks, Inc.
Mr. Murray has a BA in English from the University of Delaware and an MBA with concentrations in finance and economics from the University of Florida.
Bizfi Secures $65 Million in Financing
December 15, 2015NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Bizfi (www.bizfi.com), the premier FinTech company whose online small business finance platform combines aggregation, funding and a participation marketplace, announced that Metropolitan Equity Partners (“Metropolitan”) has provided a structured financing facility of $65 million to the company to drive growth.
Closing this financing round enables Bizfi to:
- Expand its suite of funding programs, increasing its ability to fund America’s small business capital needs.
Increase the speed at which funding applicants access direct financing from Bizfi. - Develop and implement a national marketing campaign designed to increase the awareness of the Bizfi brand and platform within the small to medium-sized business community.
- Bizfi and its proprietary marketplace and funding technologies have provided in excess of $1.3 billion in financing to over 26,000 small businesses across the United States since 2005. Since Bizfi launched its aggregation platform in 2015, the Company has experienced 72% growth in year-over-year gross originations.
“The Bizfi platform is the simplest, fastest and most frictionless process for small businesses to access funding. Metropolitan’s financing will propel our growth plans to the next stage,” said Stephen Sheinbaum, founder of Bizfi. “Every day more and more businesses are turning to Bizfi because of our strong channel partners, enabling business owners to compare all their funding options in one place. The Metropolitan partnership provides Bizfi with additional capital to develop new products and fund more small businesses from its own branded product set.”
Metropolitan’s investment provides the financial flexibility and strength to support Bizfi’s growth plans. The new investment expands upon Metropolitan’s prior involvement as an active buyer of loan participations and a mezzanine lender to the Company for the past three years.
Bizfi’s proprietary technology and aggregation platform efficiently gathers applicant information from a wide variety of sources to quickly offer commercial funding products including loans and other capital products to small businesses. Bizfi’s technology is further strengthened by strategic relationships with more than 45 funding partners, including OnDeck, Funding Circle, IMCA Capital, Bluevine and Kabbage. Bizfi also participates as a lender on the platform. Regardless of what kind of capital is sought from any of the funding partners, the small business owner is guided through the entire process by a Bizfi funding concierge that is assigned specifically to him or her.
Paul Lisiak, managing partner of Metropolitan Equity Partners stated, “Metropolitan believes that the future of small business lending is being built by Bizfi. Their aggregation and direct lending marketplace is disrupting the fast growing FinTech industry. Our new investment is the result of the impressive performance we have directly experienced as a lender and participant in the company’s financing products over the past three years. In the rapidly evolving FinTech space, Bizfi’s management team has elegantly expanded their product offerings to create a platform that holistically meets the dynamic funding needs of small businesses. We look forward to being a part of Bizfi as they further solidify their position as a leader in the financial technology space.”
Metropolitan has been an active investor in the alternative lending and FinTech space with over $100 million committed in 2015 including investments in JH Capital Group, Debt Away, New Credit America and PledgeCap.
Mr. Sheinbaum concluded, “Bizfi has seen radical growth over the last 18 months. Not only have we developed one of the most robust FinTech platforms for the small business lending space, but we have cultivated significant deals with third party companies that service small businesses. These companies will utilize white label versions of Bizfi’s platform to offer financing to their clients. Now, with the Metropolitan financing supporting our growth, we can continue to expand our products, increase our market share and provide solutions to the critical financing needs of the companies that fuel our economy.”
About Bizfi
Bizfi, is the premier FinTech company combining aggregation, funding and a participation marketplace on a single platform for small businesses. Founded in 2005, Bizfi and its family of companies have provided more than $1.3 billion in financing to over 26,000 small businesses in a wide variety of industries across the United States.
Bizfi’s connected marketplace instantly provides multiple funding options to businesses from more than 45 funding partners and real-time pre-approvals. Bizfi’s funding options include short-term financing, medical financing, lines of credit, equipment financing, invoice financing, medium-term loans and long-term loans guaranteed by the U.S. Small Business Administration. The Bizfi API provides a turnkey white label or co-branded solution that easily allows strategic partners to access the Bizfi engine and present their clients with financial offers from Bizfi lenders all while maintaining their customer’s user experience. A process that once took hours, now takes minutes.
About Metropolitan Equity Partners
Metropolitan Equity Partners Management, LLC is an alternative investment manager that provides expansion capital to growing private companies via collateralized loan structures. Metropolitan was founded by Paul Lisiak who has 20 years of experience investing in private U.S companies through both debt and equity. Metropolitan traces its roots to a successful equity strategy managed by the current Metropolitan Principals which was backed by the Man Group plc. Since 2008, Metropolitan has committed over $300MM in collateralized debt investments through call funds, blind pools and institutional managed accounts. Metropolitan is based in New York City.
Contacts
KCSA Strategic Communications
Abbie Sheridan, 212-896-1207
asheridan@kcsa.com
or
Kenneth Cousins, 212-896-1254
kcousins@kcsa.com
or
Bizfi Sales:
855-462-4934
bizfisales@bizfi.com
or
Bizfi Marketing:
212-545-3182
marketing@bizfi.com
Small Business Finance Association Accelerates Repositioning With Hiring of New Executive Director
December 14, 2015WASHINGTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The Small Business Finance Association (SFBA) announced today the hiring of Stephen Denis as its executive director. Denis was formerly the Deputy Staff Director of the House Committee on Small Business and brings over 12 years of public policy experience to the SBFA.
“The innovative companies that are disrupting the way small businesses access capital are creating opportunities for economic growth,” said Denis. “Traditional finance is changing out of necessity for small businesses and SBFA’s mission is to be the voice of the alternative financing industry for small businesses and establishing industry best practices and education.”
The Small Business Finance Association represents companies that offer alternative financing options to small businesses and provides guidance through establishing industry best practices, education and risk monitoring tools. The alternative finance industry has experienced dramatic change and explosive growth in recent years, prompting the need for a strong presence in Washington to protect a vital lending resource for small businesses.
“We felt it was time to bring on an experienced Capitol Hill veteran to make SBFA the leading voice for alternative small business finance in Washington,” said incoming President of SBFA and Chief Executive Officer of Capify, David Goldin. “It is time to come together as an industry to ensure we have a strong and unified voice on behalf of the small businesses we serve.”
“It’s no secret that access to capital is a top challenge for small businesses. SBFA is working to ensure that there are options available to these businesses that contribute to the vibrancy and health of the American economy,” said Vice-President of SBFA and Chairman of Rapid Advance, Jeremy Brown.
The Small Business Finance Association (SBFA) is a not-for-profit 501(c)(6) trade association representing organizations that provide alternative financing solutions to small businesses. SBFA (formerly known as NAMAA) provides guidance and helps to influence and shape the small business alternative financing industry through leadership, education and risk monitoring tools. For more information, visit http://www.sbfassociation.org
Contacts
Small Business Finance Association
Steve Denis, 202-213-9506
sdenis@sbfassociation.org
