Sean Murray is the President and Chief Editor of deBanked and the founder of the Broker Fair Conference. Connect with me on LinkedIn or follow me on twitter. You can view all future deBanked events here.
Articles by Sean Murray
The Largest Merchant Cash Advance in History
September 28, 2018
How would you like to be the funder to do a $40 million MCA transaction? According to the Securities & Exchange Commission, a deal of such magnitude was one of the many negligent acts that 1st Global Capital CEO Carl Ruderman did with investor money. Though the SEC refers to the merchant as an auto dealership in California, it’s roughly 9 dealerships with common ownership that collectively gross more than $550 million a year in sales. It’s the deal of a lifetime except that the ISO who brokered it has become the largest unsecured creditor to file a claim in the 1st Global bankruptcy. Records show they are owed approximately $3.9 million in unpaid commissions.
And its performance has not been without challenges, according to emails disclosed in the SEC case.
In April 2018, 1st Global employees discussed what to do about the dealerships’ lingering cash flow problems after becoming aware that the owner intended to either recapitalize the debt or sell the dealerships. The choice by then had come down to either continuing to fund them or to cut their losses, an email says.
“If they were to become insolvent, everyone loses,” wrote the Director of Accounting and Finance.
1st Global continued to fund them. The $40 million (approximate amount) was not disbursed all at once but in increments over the course of a year.
One week before 1st Global filed for bankruptcy, they signed a Binding Letter of Understanding with the dealerships acknowledging that the owner would be selling them. At that time the merchant had unpaid taxes of at least $9 million and had an outstanding receivable balance with 1st Global of $43 million. The Letter said that 1st Global would accept “whatever amount it receives [..] at this point as complete satisfaction” of the current RTR when the business is sold. 1st Global also agreed to forever release the dealerships’ owner personally from all legal claims. It was signed by Carl Ruderman 8 days before he resigned.
The merchant has not returned deBanked’s inquiries. The banker named in the Binding Letter as having been exclusively hired to sell the dealerships, told deBanked over the phone that he has never heard of 1st Global. 1st Global ceased operations on July 27th. The SEC filed a complaint against Ruderman and the company on August 23rd and an amended complaint on September 26th. The dealership transaction is used as an example of malfeasance in it twice.
New Record
No longer candidates for the largest merchant cash advance in history, two ancient deals that were famous during their eras for their size, ended up in default, and in doing so showed the industry that there was such a thing as too big.
One was a $4 million advance made by Strategic Funding Source in 2011 to a tourist attraction being produced at the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas. The Las Vegas Mob Experience, billed as the most technologically advanced interactive presentation of historical artifacts ever devised and set up in a 26,000 square foot total immersion facility, it was predicted to bring in 1.5 million visitors per year. But the deal quickly spiraled out of control, the exhibit shut down, and allegations of fraud were lodged in court. Though the Mob Experience was dubbed the largest merchant cash advance in history, it depends on whether or not you’re counting common ownership of multiple businesses as individual deals or one deal.
Dozens of advances made by Global Swift Funding in 2007 and 2008 to businesses controlled by the same west coast-based restaurateur, led to Global Swift’s demise. When the “restaurant king,” as he was known, filed for bankruptcy across all of his entities, Global Swift had outstanding future receivables with his businesses of approximately $8 million. Dan Chaon, a then representative of Global Swift, told a local newspaper at the time that the restaurateur was “a helluva sales-talk artist… he provided false financial statements, and everyone got caught up in that game.”
Get The deBanked Events Mobile App
September 24, 2018
deBanked affiliated events will now be accessible through our new mobile app! (iPhone | Android) Whether it’s deBanked CONNECT networking events or Broker Fair, you’ll be able to get all the information you need in one place.
See who’s attending!
While we don’t distribute attendee lists, you’ll be able to view all attendees that opt-in to our “Community” and even be able to direct message them. You can choose to get push notifications or email alerts when someone views your profile or sends you a message.
The app is only accessible to people registered for events beginning with deBanked CONNECT San Diego on October 4th. Use the email address tied to your registration to log in. No password is required. If you can’t remember what email address you used for your ticket, contact events@debanked.com for assistance.
CAN Capital To Bring its Executive Functions Back to Kennesaw
September 18, 2018
For CAN Capital, the power is coming back to Kennesaw, GA.
Gary Johnson, CAN’s Executive Chairman, said “Today, CAN Capital announced it will be moving its finance and executive functions from New York to Kennesaw. The board believes this move will position CAN for increased efficiency and faster decision making as it continues to meet the growing needs of small businesses. As a result, CEO Parris Sanz and CFO Tom Davidson currently based in NY, will be transitioning out of their roles. CAN Capital recently crossed the $7 Billion milestone of providing access to capital to small businesses which includes almost $300 million over the past year. The company also secured a commitment from Varadero Capital for up to $287 million to augment its expansion initiatives and capital.”
A spokesperson from CAN confirmed that Sanz and Davidson did not want to move to the Atlanta-area headquarters for personal reasons and that the board is conducting a new search for a CEO. Sanz has been with the company since 2004, rising to the CEO position in November 2016.
Founded in 1998, CAN Capital is among the oldest alternative lending companies.
The Google Battle for Lending & SMB Finance Keywords Revisited
August 29, 2018When it comes to Google’s organic search for major keywords, companies like Nerdwallet and Fundera still dominate. A few players, however, have gained or lost significant ground since last year.
The Small Business Administration relinquished its place on the first page for words like “business loan” and “business line of credit” while PayPal and Credit Karma have begun to make major appearances as their activity in these markets increases.
Take a look:
| Keywords | Fundera | Fundera | PayPal | PayPal | Credit Karma | Credit Karma | Kabbage | Kabbage | OnDeck | OnDeck |
| Date | 9/14/17 | 8/29/18 | 9/14/17 | 8/29/18 | 9/14/17 | 8/29/18 | 9/14/17 | 8/29/18 | 9/14/17 | 8/29/18 |
| business loan | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||||
| merchant cash advance | 3 | 2 | 2 | 4 | ||||||
| working capital | 8 | 9 | ||||||||
| commercial loan | 3 | 1 | 5 | |||||||
| small business loans | 2 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 4 | |||||
| business line of credit | 2 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 3 | |||||
| fast business loan | 4 | 5 | 1 | 4 | ||||||
| business loan with bad credit | 7 | 5 |
| Keywords | Lending Club | Lending Club | Nerdwallet | Nerdwallet | National Funding | National Funding | Traditional Banks | Traditional Banks | SBA.gov | SBA.gov |
| Date | 9/14/17 | 8/29/18 | 9/14/17 | 8/29/18 | 9/14/17 | 8/29/18 | 9/14/17 | 8/29/18 | 9/14/17 | 8/29/18 |
| business loan | 9 | 6 | 3 | 7,8 | 5 | 4,7 | 6 | |||
| merchant cash advance | 4 | 1 | 8 | 9 | ||||||
| working capital | 4 | |||||||||
| commercial loan | 2,7 | 3,8,9,10 | ||||||||
| small business loans | 9 | 3 | 7,8 | 5 | 7 | 1 | 2 | |||
| business line of credit | 11 | 1,4 | 1 | 6,7,8,9,10 | 4,6,7,9,10 | 5 | ||||
| fast business loan | 2 | 3 | 5,6 | 8 | ||||||
| business loan with bad credit | 1,4 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
As mentioned in previous posts, this is not a scientific analysis. Keywords are measured using a wiped browser on my own computer.
The value of a Page-1 ranking too, is not as valuable as it once was, due to the heavy placement of paid ads above the search results. Ads, however, are not a factor for the keyword “merchant cash advance” since Google banned all advertising for that search term last Fall. Originally it was theorized that the ban was accidental, but ten months later it is still in place.
No such ban exists on Bing.
Read my previous analyses on the industry’s search war over the years:
September 2017 The Google Battle for Lending and SMB Finance Keywords
December 2015 Google Serves Low Blow to Merchant Cash Advance Seekers
March 2015 Google Culls Online Lenders – Pay or Else?
October 2014 Merchant Cash Advance SEO War Still Raging
August 2014 Six Signs Alternative Lending is Rigged: Do Lending Club and OnDeck have a helping hand?
October 2013 Google Penguin 2.1 takes swing at the MCA industry
August 2013 Your merchant cash advance press release may be hurting you
December 2012 Is Google your only web strategy?
July 2012 The other 93% [of leads]
April 2012 The SEO war continues
February 2012 The SEO War for Merchant Cash Advance: The first story on this topic
Merchant Cash Advance Company Wins in Bankruptcy Court After Judge Rules It’s an Ordinary Part of Business
August 21, 2018
Last week, a bankruptcy judge in the Northern District of Illinois ruled that a merchant had used so many merchant cash advances that it had become a normal part of their business.
At issue was Network Salon Services, a business founded in 2004 that was brought back from the brink of insolvency in January 2013 by a merchant cash advance. That advance, coupled with dozens of advances from more than 14 MCA companies over the following 3 and a half years would keep Network Salon on life support until it finally failed for good.
At the end, Network Salon had just $200 to its name and nearly $4 million in outstanding future receivables due to MCA companies.
After the Chapter 7 proceedings commenced, the bankruptcy trustee came knocking on the doors of several MCA companies to give back the funds it believed had been fraudulently transferred and obtained through criminally usurious means.
One of those companies, NY-based LG Funding, pushed back hard, and on August 15th the judge ruled in LG’s favor. In a carefully considered decision, The Honorable Jacqueline Cox said that an exception applied to LG Funding. Unlike a normal creditor where certain property obtained leading up to a bankruptcy becomes returnable to the trustee, Network Salon relied on MCAs in its normal course of business for years and thus the transfers of funds to LG Funding was the ordinary course of business not subject to return.
So ordinary was it in fact that Network Salon used MCAs to make payments on other MCAs, going so far that at one point one of its bank accounts showed no deposit activity for a month except for deposits from MCA companies and online lenders.
Ultimately it didn’t matter if LG Funding was actually debiting the deposits made by rival companies rather than the actual proceeds of sales, Judge Cox opined, because this deviation from the contract was not fraudulent and both parties benefited from it.
The usury arguments, as usual, failed, because New York courts (The state governing LG Funding’s contracts) have already determined that MCA transactions are not loans and therefore can’t be usurious.
“The Trustee has failed to meet her burden to establish by a preponderance of the evidence that the transfers were preferential or constructively fraudulent and therefore subject to avoidance,” The judge ordered. “LG Funding has succeeded in establishing that the transfers were made in the ordinary course of business, defeating the Trustee’s 547(b) preference claim. The constructive fraudulent conveyance claim fails because Network Salon received reasonably equivalent value in the transactions in issue. Judgment will be entered in favor of Defendant LG Funding on all counts.”
This post is an oversimplified explanation. Download the 24-page decision HERE for the full facts and details.
The 2018 Top Small Business Funders By Revenue
August 16, 2018The below chart ranks several companies in the non-bank small business financing space by revenue over the last 5 years. The data is primarily drawn from reports submitted to the Inc. 5000 list, public earnings statements, or published media reports. It is not comprehensive. Companies for which no data is publicly available are excluded. Want to add your figures? Email Sean@debanked.com
| Company | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 |
| Square | $2,214,253,000 | $1,708,721,000 | $1,267,118,000 | $850,192,000 | $552,433,000 |
| OnDeck | $350,950,000 | $291,300,000 | $254,700,000 | $158,100,000 | $65,200,000 |
| Kabbage | $200,000,000+* | $171,784,000 | $97,461,712 | $40,193,000 | |
| Bankers Healthcare Group | $160,300,000 | $93,825,129 | $61,332,289 | ||
| Global Lending Services | $125,700,000 | ||||
| National Funding | $94,500,000 | $75,693,096 | $59,075,878 | $39,048,959 | $26,707,000 |
| Reliant Funding | $55,400,000 | $51,946,000 | $11,294,044 | $9,723,924 | $5,968,009 |
| Fora Financial | $50,800,000 | $41,590,720 | $33,974,000 | $26,932,581 | $18,418,300 |
| Forward Financing | $42,100,000 | $28,305,078 | |||
| SmartBiz Loans | $23,600,000 | ||||
| Expansion Capital Group | $23,400,000 | ||||
| 1st Global Capital | $22,600,000 | ||||
| IOU Financial | $17,415,096 | $17,400,527 | $11,971,148 | $6,160,017 | $4,047,105 |
| Quicksilver Capital | $16,500,000 | ||||
| Channel Partners Capital | $14,500,000 | $2,207,927 | $4,013,608 | $3,673,990 | |
| Wellen Capital | $13,200,000 | $15,984,688 | |||
| Lighter Capital | $11,900,000 | $6,364,417 | $4,364,907 | ||
| Lendr | $11,800,000 | ||||
| United Capital Source | $9,735,350 | $8,465,260 | $3,917,193 | ||
| US Business Funding | $9,100,000 | $5,794,936 | |||
| Fundera | $8,800,000 | ||||
| Nav | $5,900,000 | $2,663,344 | |||
| Fund&Grow | $5,700,000 | $4,082,130 | |||
| Shore Funding Solutions | $4,300,000 | ||||
| StreetShares | $3,701,210 | $647,119 | $239,593 | ||
| FitSmallBusiness.com | $3,000,000 | ||||
| Eagle Business Credit | $2,600,000 | ||||
| Swift Capital | $88,600,000 | $51,400,000 | $27,540,900 | $11,703,500 | |
| Blue Bridge Financial | $6,569,714 | $5,470,564 | |||
| Fast Capital 360 | $6,264,924 | ||||
| Cashbloom | $5,404,123 | $4,804,112 | $3,941,819 | $3,823,893 | |
| Priority Funding Solutions | $2,599,931 |
90% of PayPal Merchant Advances and Business Loans Are Performing On Pace
July 28, 2018
As of June 30, 90.6% of PayPal’s merchant advances and business loans were performing within the original expected repayment period, the company disclosed this week. That equated to $1.27 billion worth of deals. Only 4.2% of their merchants were more than 90 days behind their expected pace.
PayPal had $1.4 billion in outstanding merchant loans, advances, interest and fees receivables.
Swift business loans are charged off when they are more than 180 days past due. The Working Capital products (which can be loans or advances) are charged off when the merchant is 180 days past the company’s original expectations and no payment has been made in the last 60 days OR when the merchant is 360 days beyond the company’s original expectation.
Swift Business loans are generally repayable over 3-12 months. Working Capital advances are generally expected to be satisfied within 9-12 months.
After PayPal acquired Swift Financial, the company began marketing itself to small businesses as LoanBuilder. A flyer obtained by deBanked showed that it was being marketed with loan amounts of $5,000 to $500,000 that could be funded in as quick as 1 business day.
Stacking Lawsuit Results in Settlement Before Trial
June 19, 2018A lawsuit between RapidAdvance and Pearl Capital over tortious interference will not be going to trial after all, deBanked has learned. Originally scheduled to begin on June 25th, the parties have reportedly reached a settlement.
Neither party would respond for comment.
RapidAdvance filed its lawsuit against Pearl in November 2015 with the hope that they could set a precedent against “stacking.”
The suit was filed in the Circuit Court of Maryland under Small Business Financial Solutions, LLC v. Pearl Beta Funding, LLC, Case No. 411478-V.
