Articles by Press Release
Marketplace Lending Association Announces 11 New Members
January 12, 2017
WASHINGTON, Jan. 12, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — The Marketplace Lending Association (MLA) today announced the addition of eleven new companies to the Association. The new members join as the MLA works to expand its presence in Washington. The MLA was formed in 2016 by founding members Funding Circle, Lending Club, and Prosper Marketplace with the goal of promoting a transparent, efficient and customer-friendly financial system.
New Members include: Affirm, Upstart, CommonBond, Avant, PeerStreet, Marlette Funding, Sharestates, Able, and StreetShares. New Associate Members of the MLA include dv01 and LendIt.
This expansion represents a new chapter for the MLA, as it extends the group beyond consumer and small business lending to include platforms focused on student loan refinancing and real estate, as well as greater diversity of funding models, including lending platforms that hold loans on balance sheet.
“On behalf of the founding members, I welcome these new members to the Association and I look forward to working with them to advance our mutual public goals both in Washington and in state capitols around the country,” said Nathaniel Hoopes, executive director of the MLA. “As MLA member companies continue to innovate and create new opportunities for borrowers and investors, the MLA will play an important role in sharing data and insights that help educate policy makers on the benefits that these companies bring to consumers, businesses, and our financial system.”
To provide policymakers with a general overview of its 2017 agenda, the Association also today sent letters to the incoming Trump Administration and to the leaders of the 115th Congress.
ABOUT MLA
MLA, a professional trade association, was formed in 2016. The goals of the Association are to promote a transparent, efficient, and customer-friendly financial system by supporting the responsible growth of marketplace lending, fostering innovation in financial technology, and encouraging sound public policy at the state and federal level. To be eligible to join the association MLA companies must abide by the highest standards of business conduct in providing credit and services to consumers and businesses.
For more information about MLA, its members and its membership standards, visit the MLA website at www.marketplacelendingassociation.org.
Media Contacts:
Nathaniel Hoopes – Executive Director
Phone: (202) 660 1825
nat.hoopes@marketplacelendingassociation.org
Funding Circle announces $100 million equity investment to help thousands more small businesses globally
January 11, 2017
- Round led by Accel, with participation from other existing equity investors
- Investment comes as UK business reached profitability for Q4 2016
- Lending through Funding Circle passes $3 billion globally, benefitting over 25,000 businesses in the UK, US and Europe – creating more than 50,000 new jobs
Funding Circle, the world’s leading lending platform focused exclusively on small business finance, today announced it has raised a further $100 million in equity capital. Led by Accel, the round saw participation from existing Funding Circle investors, including Baillie Gifford, DST Global, Index Ventures, Ribbit Capital, Rocket Internet, Sands Capital Ventures, Temasek and Union Square Ventures.
The new investment follows significant growth at Funding Circle over the last 12 months. Globally, investors on the Funding Circle platform have lent more than $1.4 billion to small businesses in 2016, with approximately $485 million lent in Q4 alone, a record amount for any SME direct lending platform. Additionally, in Q4 Funding Circle UK recorded 90 percent year-on-year growth and reached profitability.
Samir Desai, CEO and co-founder of Funding Circle, said: “Funding Circle is changing the financial landscape for small businesses and investors globally, ensuring a better deal for everyone and helping to create a more sustainable and fairer economy. Today’s news is the next step on our journey to create a category-defining company that helps thousands of small businesses access finance and create jobs. Over the next 12 months, lending through the Funding Circle platform will create a further 50,000 new jobs, supporting economic growth in the UK, US and continental Europe.”
Funding Circle facilitates lending to small businesses from investors including 60,000 individuals, local and national government, the European Investment Bank and financial institutions such as pension funds. The investment comes as lending to small businesses through the platform passes $3 billion globally, benefitting over 25,000 businesses and creating 50,000 new jobs.
Harry Nelis, Partner at Accel, said: “We’ve been impressed by the Funding Circle team since our early investment in the company. It has achieved significant growth across multiple international markets by delivering an appealing lending option to SMEs and attractive risk-adjusted returns to investors on the platform. This investment makes Funding Circle the largest and best capitalized SME lending platform in the world, and we’re thrilled to continue to support its journey.”
Launched in 2010, the Funding Circle model has opened up small business lending to a wide range of investors, improving competition in the market, creating jobs and reducing dependency on bank lending. This latest investment is recognition of the efficiency of the direct lending model, and its ability to channel much-needed funds to the real economy, while providing investors with attractive, stable returns. In total, Funding Circle has now raised $373 million in equity funding from some of the world’s largest and most respected investors.
By bringing together industry leading risk management and cutting edge technology, creditworthy businesses typically access the capital they need in days rather than months.
About Funding Circle
Funding Circle (www.fundingcircle.com) is the world’s leading lending platform for business loans, matching small businesses who want to borrow with investors who want to lend in the UK, US and Europe. Since launching in 2010, investors at Funding Circle – including 60,000 individuals, financial institutions, the listed Funding Circle SME Income Fund and Government – have lent more than $3 billion to 25,000 businesses globally. Approximately 10 percent of investor money now comes from Government sources, including the British Business Bank, European Investment Bank, KfW, the German government-owned development bank, and local councils across the UK. Funding Circle was the first lending platform to announce a formal referral partnership with Santander, one of the UK’s leading high street banks, and has since announced a similar partnership with RBS. It has raised $373m in equity capital from the same investors that backed Facebook, Twitter and Airbnb.
About Accel
Accel is a leading early- and growth-stage venture capital firm, powering a global community of entrepreneurs. Accel backs entrepreneurs who have what it takes to build a world-class, category-defining business. Founded in 1983, Accel brings more than three decades of experience building and supporting hundreds of companies. Accel’s vision for entrepreneurship and business enables it to identify and invest in the companies that will be responsible for the growth of next-generation industries. Accel has backed a number of iconic global platforms, which are powering new experiences for mobile consumers and the modern enterprise, including Atlassian, Avito, BlaBlaCar, Deliveroo, Dropbox, Etsy, Facebook, Flipkart, Funding Circle, Kayak, QlikTech, Simplivity, Slack, Spotify, Supercell, WorldRemit and others.
Strategic Funding Source Integrates U.S. Operations of Capify
January 4, 2017New York, NY – Strategic Funding Source, Inc., today announced that it has entered into an agreement to integrate the United States operations of Capify into its adaptive proprietary operating platform. Both Strategic Funding and Capify have been providing non-bank financing options to small and mid-size businesses for over a decade. This integration enables Strategic Funding to expand its US operations by marketing to and providing capital to existing Capify customers who will, upon renewal of existing merchant cash advances or business loans, become part of the Strategic Funding family of customers.
“We are very pleased to have put together a deal with Strategic Funding that will provide our customers a future source of important capital. As a company that shares our values of providing simple, transparent and responsible access to capital for small and mid-sized businesses, it was a logical transition,” said David Goldin, Founder and CEO of Capify.
As part of the transition, many of Capify’s New York-based employees will become part of the larger and growing family of employees at Strategic Funding. The transition also allows Capify’s existing U.S. clients and partners the opportunity to take advantage of a larger variety of financing options, while still benefitting from the same standards of transparency and integrity that they have come to expect from Capify.
“It is rare that two companies in the same industry can come together and craft a synergistic deal that serves the best interests and strategies of each – but this integration does just that,” stated, Andy Reiser, CEO of Strategic Funding. “We have been friends of David and Capify for many years and have collaborated on and co-invested in the financing of many businesses over the years. We share the same focus on technology and quality underwriting that our customers, partners and the financial industry have come to expect from us. This transaction only strengthens the relationship between the two organizations”
ABOUT STRATEGIC FUNDING
Founded in 2006 and headquartered in NYC, Strategic Funding has been recognized by customers and the industry as one of the most reliable and respected names in small business financing. With flexible financing options, we have provided over 35,000 small businesses with the working capital they needed to take advantage of opportunities and grow. To learn more, visit www.sfscapital.com
Bizfi Hits $2B Origination Milestone; Providing Financing to More Than 35,000 U.S. Small Businesses
December 22, 2016
NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Today, Bizfi, the premier fintech company with a platform that combines aggregation, funding and a marketplace on a single platform for small businesses, announced that it has surpassed $2 billion in financing – through both growth and working capital – to more than 35,000 small businesses across America.
The Bizfi.com marketplace was launched in 2015 to provide small business owners with access to multiple financing options from more than 45 lending partners. These financing 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.
“Over eleven years ago, when Bizfi became one of the first alternative finance lenders, we understood that if we remained committed to the principle of providing business owners with fast access to smart capital, we could achieve growth while supporting the number one job engine in the economy,” said Stephen Sheinbaum, founder, Bizfi. “During the last decade we have invested in creating the best platform and user experience with the most advanced technology to ensure business owners can access the financing they need. Hitting this milestone reinforces that our business fundamentals are strong and we are providing a much needed service in this growing economy.”
“Every dollar we provide to a small business owner returns multiples of GDP,” said John Donovan, CEO of Bizfi. “Being able to support the small business community is at the heart of our company. We believe there is tremendous opportunity to grow our marketplace offerings. We have funded over 35,000 small businesses and we look forward to greatly expanding that number.”
Donovan continued, “One of the key reasons why I joined Bizfi as its Chief Executive Officer was its growth trajectory. In just two years, the company has gone from supplying $1B to small businesses to $2B. This is a testament to our unique business model of providing both a financial product and a marketplace.”
Built from proprietary technology, Bizfi’s platform uses application program interface (APIs) to leverage a wide variety of sources to quickly offer loans and other financial products to small businesses. The platform is strengthened by strategic relationships with more than 45 funding partners, 15 of which are integrated within the platform, including OnDeck (NASDAQ:ONDK), Funding Circle, Bluevine, and Kabbage. Bizfi is also a direct lender on the platform.
About Bizfi
Bizfi is the premier fintech company combining aggregation, funding and a marketplace on a single platform for small businesses. Founded in 2005, Bizfi and its family of companies have provided $2 billion in financing to more than 35,000 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.
Contacts
Media
KCSA Strategic Communications
Kate Tumino, 212-896-1252
ktumino@kcsa.com
or
Bizfi
Sales, 855-462-4934
bizfisales@bizfi.com
or
Bizfi
Marketing, 212-545-3182
marketing@bizfi.com
Fintech Startup BlueVine Raises $49 Million in Series D Funding
December 14, 2016- The company has provided more than $200M in financing to thousands of businesses
- In response to customer demand BlueVine is increasing credit lines to $2 million for invoice factoring and $100,000 for business lines of credit
- Company is expanding strategic relationships with partners like Intuit
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (December 14, 2016) BlueVine, a leading online provider of everyday financing to small businesses, announced today it has closed $49 million in funding. The Series D funding round was led by existing investors, including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Menlo Ventures, 83North, Citi Ventures, Rakuten FinTech Fund and Silicon Valley Bank.
Since launching in March 2014, BlueVine’s cloud-based financing solutions have helped thousands of small businesses obtain quick, easy access to the funds they need to purchase inventory, cover expenses and expand operations.
We are very proud of all we’ve accomplished in 2016 and excited to continue on our incredible growth trajectory, said Eyal Lifshitz, CEO and founder of BlueVine. BlueVine is delivering unprecedented ease and convenience to meet SMB owners¹ financing needs and help them achieve their goals.
This financing will support BlueVine’s rapid growth as it expands its team and range of offerings. BlueVine has already funded more than $200 million in working capital for SMBs and is on track to fund more than $500 million in working capital during 2017.
This team continues to push the pace of innovation to deliver best-in-class everyday financing products, said Yoni Cheifetz of Lightspeed Venture Partners. We are delighted to have supported BlueVine’s journey to date and thrilled to enable them to bring their vision to thousands more SMBs across the country.
BlueVine’s business line of credit has proven to be very popular with QuickBooks users, said Rania Succar, business leader of QuickBooks Financing. It fills a critical part of the QuickBooks Financing portfolio and allows us to extend credit to younger businesses. We are excited about expanding our partnership to serve even more QuickBooks SMBs with BlueVine’s business line of credit.
BlueVine also announced it has once again increased its maximum credit lines based on client demand:
- For invoice factoring the maximum credit limit has been increased from $250,000 to $2,000,000
- For the business line of credit the maximum credit limit has been increased from $50,000 to $100,000
BlueVine offers credit lines starting at $5,000 for a business line of credit and $20,000 for invoice factoring.
About BlueVine
BlueVine offers small businesses financing solutions to access the funds they need to purchase inventory, cover expenses or expand operations. BlueVine was the first factoring company to develop a fully online, cloud-based platform for invoice factoring, enabling rapid advances on outstanding invoices due in 7-90 days and bringing a 4,000-year-old industry into the digital age. BlueVine also offers Flex Credit, an on-demand, revolving line of credit through the same online platform. With BlueVine, business owners can focus on growing their business instead of worrying about their bank account. BlueVine is funded by Lightspeed Venture Partners, Citi Ventures, 83North, Correlation Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Rakuten Fintech Fund and other private investors.
About Lightspeed Venture Partners
Lightspeed Venture Partners is an early stage venture capital firm focused on accelerating disruptive innovations and trends in the Enterprise and Consumer sectors. Over the past two decades, the Lightspeed team has backed hundreds of entrepreneurs and helped build more than 300 companies globally. The Firm currently manages over $4 billion of committed capital and invests in the U.S. and internationally, with investment professionals and advisors in Silicon Valley, Israel, India and China. www.lsvp.com
Press Contact
Amberly Asay
BlueVine Public Relations
801-461-9776
bluevine@methodcommunications.com
Knight Capital Funding Announces New Chief Data Scientist, Alex Kondratyev
December 11, 2016MIAMI, Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — Knight Capital Funding, a financial services company dedicated to delivering working capital to small and medium sized businesses in an efficient and transparent manner, announced the hiring of Alex Kondratyev as its Chief Data Scientist.
Kondratyev had been providing financial consulting to Knight Capital prior to accepting the role of Chief Data Scientist. He will be working out of Knight Capital’s new Silicon Valley office. Prior to joining Knight Capital, Kondratyev worked at Cadence Design Systems, a multinational electronic design automation software and engineering services company, as a senior software Architect. At Cadence he led and managed the scheduling group, which was responsible for a kernel of C-to-Silicon synthesis that involves about 20 man-years of development with more than 100,000 lines of C++ code.
“Alex will be integral to our data modeling in all aspects of our business. His expertise will play a critical role in our underwriting models, giving us the enhanced capabilities to mitigate potential fraud, while also increasing our approval ability to get working capital in the hands of small and medium sized businesses,” said Rich Ferrante, CFO at Knight Capital.
“I was intrigued by the rapid growth and unique technology platform at Knight Capital,” said Kondratyev. “I am very happy to have joined and to be a part of the largest funding and revenue months in the Company’s history, which gives us many data points to enhance the prediction power of our models.”
Kondratyev has been in software design his whole career with a specialization in complex algorithms. He began his career as a professor in Logic Design and Foundations of programming. He then joined Cadence Design Systems where he was a founder of C-to-Silicon synthesis group. Later he moved to Xilinx Inc. and worked as Principal engineer before joining Knight Capital. Kondratyev has a Master’s in Computer Science as well as a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the esteemed Saint Petersburg Electrotechnical University in Russia. He holds seven U.S. patents, more than 50 Russian patents, and is co-author of two monographs on asynchronous synthesis with more than 120 conference and journal publications.
About Knight Capital, LLC
Founded in 2013 and with offices in New York, Silicon Valley, Florida, India and Dominican Republic, Knight is a leading financial technology company that provides customized financing solutions to small and medium size businesses in the United States. Knight leverages its leading technology platform to provide solutions to small and medium sized business owners with greater speed and flexibility than in the marketplace. Visit www.knightcapitalfunding.com to learn more.
SOURCE Knight Capital Funding
OnDeck Announces New $200 Million Revolving Credit Facility with Credit Suisse
December 9, 2016
NEW YORK, Dec. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — OnDeck® (NYSE: ONDK), the leader in online lending for small business, announced today the closing of a $200 million asset-backed revolving debt facility with Credit Suisse.
In addition to its other funding sources, OnDeck may now obtain funding under the new credit facility with Credit Suisse, subject to customary borrowing conditions, by accessing $125 million of committed capacity and an additional $75 million of capacity available at the discretion of the lenders.
“OnDeck has emerged as a leading provider of growth capital to small businesses around the country,” said Jon-Claude Zucconi, Managing Director, Credit Suisse. “The team’s innovative vision and commitment to financing is vital to expansion and growth in the small business community.”
Under the facility, loans will be made to Prime OnDeck Receivable Trust II, LLC, or PORT II, a wholly-owned subsidiary of OnDeck, to finance PORT II’s purchase of small business loans from OnDeck. The revolving pool of small business loans purchased by PORT II serves as collateral under the facility. OnDeck is acting as the servicer for such small business loans. The Class A Loans under the facility were rated by DBRS, Inc.
OnDeck intends to initially use a portion of this facility, together with other available funds, to optionally prepay in full without penalty or premium, the existing $100 million Prime OnDeck Receivable Trust, LLC facility which was scheduled to expire in June 2017. As a result, OnDeck will benefit from obtaining additional funding capacity through December 2018.
“This transaction marks a continuation of our financing strategy to diversify funding sources, extend debt maturities, and create additional funding capacity to pave the way for future loan growth,” said Howard Katzenberg, Chief Financial Officer, OnDeck. “We are pleased to have Credit Suisse, a leading global financial institution, support OnDeck in our mission to power the growth of small business through lending technology and innovation.”
About OnDeck
OnDeck (NYSE: ONDK) is the leader in online small business lending. Since 2007, the company has powered Main Street’s growth through advanced lending technology and a constant dedication to customer service. OnDeck’s proprietary credit scoring system – the OnDeck Score® – leverages advanced analytics, enabling OnDeck to make real-time lending decisions and deliver capital to small businesses in as little as 24 hours. OnDeck offers business owners a complete financing solution, including the online lending industry’s widest range of term loans and lines of credit. To date, the company has deployed over $5 billion to more than 60,000 customers in 700 different industries across the United States, Canada, and Australia. OnDeck has an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau and operates the educational small business financing website BusinessLoans.com.
For more information, please visit www.ondeck.com.
About Credit Ratings
Credit ratings are opinions of the relevant rating agency. They are not facts and are not opinions of OnDeck. They are not recommendations to purchase, sell or hold any securities and can be changed or withdrawn at any time.
Safe Harbor Statement
This press release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and other legal authority. Forward-looking statements include statements about the intended use of proceeds from the new facility and expected optional repayment in full of the existing facility, the extension of debt maturities and the availability of additional funding capacity, all of which are dependent upon compliance with the borrowing and other conditions of the new facility, as well as information concerning OnDeck’s business plans and objectives and financing plans including future loan growth. Forward-looking statements can also be identified by words such as “will,” “enables,” “expects”, “may,” “allows,” “continues,” “believes,” “intends,” “anticipates,” “estimates” or similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are neither historical facts nor assurances of future performance. They are based only on OnDeck’s current beliefs, expectations and assumptions regarding the future of its business, anticipated events and trends, the economy and other future conditions. Moreover, OnDeck does not assume responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of forward-looking statements. As such, they are subject to inherent uncertainties, changes in circumstances, known and unknown risks and other factors that are difficult to predict and in many cases outside OnDeck’s control.
As a result, you should not rely on any forward-looking statements. OnDeck’s expected results may not be achieved, and actual results may differ materially from OnDeck’s expectations. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ from OnDeck’s forward-looking statements are the risks that OnDeck may not be able to manage its anticipated or actual growth effectively, that its credit models do not adequately identify potential risks, and other risks, including those under the heading “Risk Factors” in OnDeck’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015, Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2016 and in other documents that OnDeck files with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, from time to time which are available on the SEC website at www.sec.gov. OnDeck undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements for any reason after the date of this press release to conform these statements to actual results or to changes in OnDeck’s expectations, except as required by law.
OnDeck, the OnDeck logo and OnDeck Score are trademarks of On Deck Capital, Inc.
Logo – http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150812/257781LOGO
SOURCE On Deck Capital, Inc.
SmartBiz Loans Ranked Number One Provider of Traditional SBA 7(a) Loans Under $350,000
December 5, 2016SAN FRANCISCO, CA – December 5, 2016 – SmartBiz Loans, the first SBA marketplace and bank-enabling technology platform, has ranked as the number one provider of non-Express, SBA 7(a) loans under $350,000 for the 2016 government fiscal year. SmartBiz also ranked number five among providers of under $350,000 traditional SBA 7(a) and Express 7(a) loans combined.
“SmartBiz’s success in this year’s SBA 7(a) ranking demonstrates how technology can support banks in meeting the needs of small businesses,” said Evan Singer, CEO of SmartBiz Loans. “SmartBiz is committed to creating the leading marketplace for both banks and small business owners, by matching small business owners with the bank best suited to their needs and enabling a higher percentage of SBA loans to be approved.”
SmartBiz generated $200 million in funded SBA 7(a) loans through its bank lending partners, which helped them earn the top spot. The data used is based on SBA lending data released in November, reflecting its 2016 fiscal year which ended on Sept. 30. Wells Fargo Bank, which was ranked just below SmartBiz, generated $155 million in funded non-Express SBA 7(a) loans under $350,000. This is the first time a technology platform and marketplace has achieved the number one position in SBA’s ranking of 7(a) loans.
“Small businesses are the driving force of the economy,” said Ann Marie Mehlum, retired Associate Administrator, Office of Capital Access, U.S. Small Business Administration. “By supporting them, the SBA and lending partners like SmartBiz are investing in the economy as a whole.”
SmartBiz is revolutionizing SBA lending. Its marketplace helps increase approval rates by automatically directing businesses to the right lender, while its advanced software streamlines the SBA loan application, underwriting and origination process. In this way, SmartBiz fills a critical gap in the small business loan market and enables small businesses nationwide to grow without settling for the sky-high rates of alternative online lenders or undergoing the typically slow and tedious traditional bank process.
About SmartBiz Loans
SmartBiz Loans is a unique combination of an online SBA loan marketplace and a bank enabling technology platform. The company’s online software provides SBA preferred lenders customized and automated origination, underwriting and documentation, making approval and funding fast and easy. Sophisticated algorithmic sorting in the SmartBiz marketplace also enables higher approval rates for small businesses because the right applications are automatically directed to the right bank. SmartBiz is based in San Francisco and was founded in 2009 by a team of experienced financial services entrepreneurs with backing from leading venture capital firms including Investor Growth Capital, Venrock, First Round Capital, Baseline Ventures, and SoftTech VC. Learn more at www.smartbizloans.com.
