Factoring
Factoring Still Slow to Modernize, Say Industry Leaders
December 6, 2018
“There were no factoring companies online when we started [in 2013],” said Eyal Lifshitz, CEO of BlueVine.
That may be true. Lifshitz has become a thought leader in the factoring world, known for creating a company, BlueVine, that introduced an online-only factoring product. When deBanked asked Lifshitz yesterday if he saw other factoring companies embracing technology, he was reluctant to speak about competitors. But he said, “We’re not seeing as much movement from traditional factoring companies…there have been some attempts of traditional factoring companies to move in [the technology] direction, but we haven’t seen something major happening.”
A leading U.S. factor attorney who asked not to be named, echoed this sentiment, albeit more forcefully.
“It’s painful how little change there has been among factors,” the lawyer said. “They have been comfortable for far too long.”
When asked if BlueVine is the only company in the factoring space that is technologically advanced, he said there is one other that comes to mind, and that is LSQ, based in Maitland, FL.
“They’ve always been ahead of the curve and early adopters of technology,” he said of LSQ. “They’re just more quiet about it than BlueVine.”
BlueVine very much identifies itself as a technology company first, according to Lifshitz.
“We started on day 1 as being 100 percent online, so it’s a different approach. A different DNA,” Lifshitz said.
While BlueVine started in 2013 offering only a factoring product, the company later introduced a line of credit product which now accounts for a little more than half of its business. Lifshitz noted that the flexibility of the line of credit product is very appealing to many of their clients.
With factoring, the customer can only get as much money as the customer has invoices for. But with the line of credit, the customer can get funds – up to $250,000 – advanced to them as they need it. So, increasingly, it’s the companies looking for amounts greater that $250,000 that will opt for BlueVine’s factoring product, Lifshitz said.
At the Money 20/20 conference at the end of October of this year, Lifshitz said that BlueVine will launch a third product in 2019, and possibly a fourth as well.
“We are focused on products that are hard to do,” Lifshitz said. “The magic is how to take a product that is complex to deliver from an underwriting standpoint, from an infrastructure standpoint, and from an automation standpoint, and deliver it to our small business customer in an [easy] way.”
NYIC – IFA Northeast – AFBA – deBanked Conference Recap
October 17, 2018
Yesterday, the New York Institute of Credit (NYIC) hosted a conference in Manhattan with attendees from several segments of the commercial finance industry, including factoring, MCA, and asset based lending. Approximately 100 registrants gathered at Arno Ristorante in the garment district section of midtown. In addition to local New York firms, attendees travelled from as far as Chicago and California to be at the event.
“By all accounts, it was a big success,” said Harvey Gross, Executive Director of the NYIC, which recently celebrated its 100th anniversary. The half-day conference was a collaboration of the NYIC, the Alternative Finance Bar Association (AFBA), the IFA Northeast, and deBanked.
“The joint conference was truly groundbreaking,” said Lindsey Rohan, a cofounder of the AFBA, who also moderated a legal panel. “Having the various business models that make up the alternative finance space in the same room created an opportunity for honest and impactful conversation. While we only scratched the surface and I have many new questions, I’m confident that new business relationships were created and this will open the door to a continued exchange of ideas.”
Nineteen panelists, many of them executives at financial companies and lawyers, contributed to four panels that filled the afternoon with lively and thoughtful conversation. Regulations coming out of California and just recently from New Jersey, were hot topics of discussion.
deBanked founder Sean Murray moderated a panel on Best Practices. “These type of collaborative events are necessary as commercial finance offerings continue to expand. Education and debate create a more fluid marketplace,” Murray said.
Andrew Bertolina, whose company Finvoice offers factors and asset-based lenders a sleek software solution, said it was “great to see everyone at the Lending Conference and cross-pollination of MCA, factors and fintech players. Most cross-pollination at this IFA NYIC event than in prior factoring events.” Bertolina is the co-founder and CEO.
Robert Zadek, an attorney with Buchalter said, “that was a great meeting. It was so instructive to hear intelligent, honorable representatives of factoring and of alternative finance, who share clients and have overlapping products cordially comparing notes and sharing somewhat different views of the marketplace and the future of SMB financing. It is fascinating to see how much each can learn from the other, and to witness how such different financial products are moving towards each. The lesson – adapt or perish.”
The conference was sponsored by Change Capital, Finvoice, law firm Platzer, Swergold, Levine, Goldberg, Katz & Jaslow LLP, Aurous Financial, and Financial Poise.
Triumph Business Capital Completes Acquisition of Factoring Assets
June 14, 2018Triumph Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:TBK) recently announced the closing of the acquisition of the transportation factoring assets of Interstate Capital Corporation by Advance Business Capital, also known as Triumph Business Capital.
Triumph Business Capital is a wholly owned subsidiary of TBK Bank, SSB, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Triumph Bancorp. The assets acquired include all of the accounts receivable and transportation factoring assets and operations of Interstate Capital Corporation (ICC) and certain of its affiliates. Following the closing [of ICC], the acquired operations will continue to be conducted under the ICC brand name.
Triumph initially announced its agreement to acquire the transportation factoring assets of ICC on April 9, 2018, but the acquisition was made final at the beginning of the month. Triumph Bancorp, Inc. is a financial holding company headquartered in Dallas, Texas, with a diversified line of community banking and commercial finance activities.
