Industry News
SoFi Has Massive Loss in Second Quarter
August 7, 2018
SoFi had a second quarter adjusted loss of about $200 million, according to a Bloomberg story from yesterday, citing people familiar with the company’s situation.
“Our Q2 financial results were negatively impacted by significantly lowered valuation of legacy loans and assets as well as the slow start to increasing prices in the face of a rising interest rate environment,” the company said in a second-quarter shareholder letter from August 3, that was obtained by Bloomberg.
At the beginning of July, the Wall Street Journal reported that SoFi had been meeting with banks to discuss raising a roughly $500 million unsecured line of credit that could go toward potential buyouts of other fintech firms.
As of the start of the year, the student loan company, which also offers other financing products, postponed an IPO to 2019. And in October 2017 it withdrew an FDIC application to obtain a special purpose (ILC) bank charter. This came amid a sexual harassment allegations against the company’s co-founder and then CEO Mike Cagney.
In March of this year, Anthony Noto, formerly at Twitter and Goldman Sachs, replaced Cagney as CEO. In Noto’s first shareholder letter as CEO in May, he said that SoFi originated $3.6 billion in loans in the first quarter of 2018, a 27 percent increase from 2017. He also said that the company added about 59,000 members in the quarter, most of them borrowers, bringing the total number close to 500,000.
Additionally, Noto wrote in the May letter, obtained by CNBC, that the company’s “SoFi at Work” program, which partners with companies to help their employees pay off student loans and other debt, expanded its funded loan volume by 118 percent from last year.
SoFi also offers mortgage products, but had to let go of 65 employees from its mortgage operation at the beginning of 2018. Founded in 2011, the company is based in San Francisco and employees more than 1,000 people.
OnDeck Profitable, Again
August 7, 2018OnDeck posted a profit this morning, the 2nd time in the last 3 quarters. The company reported $5.8 million in net income for Q2. The average loan size decreased and the average effective interest rate increased (36.1%).
Although the Fed has been gradually raising interest rates, OnDeck’s costs of funds actually went down to 6.6% from 6.8% the prior quarter. This was due to favorable refinancing rates on the $225 million securitization and new $100 million revolving credit facility that closed in April, they said.
OnDeck originated $587 million in loans for the quarter, down slightly from $591 million in Q1.
Lengthy Investigation Leads to Arrest of Former Funding Company Employee
August 2, 2018
A former Yellowstone Capital employee was arrested yesterday in New York City, the culmination of what Yellowstone CEO Isaac Stern said was a nearly year-long investigation that involved law enforcement in New York, New Jersey and Florida.
The former employee was charged as a Fugitive of Justice in New York. And he is being charged with 3rd degree Theft by Deception and two computer related crimes in New Jersey, according to Stern. This person’s name is being withheld as he has not been convicted. According to Stern, the employee started working for Yellowstone last year as a rep at the company’s Jersey City office. He then left the company on his own volition to move to Florida. When Yellowstone opened a Florida office in May 2017, the man was rehired by Yellowstone to manage the data entry operation at the new office.
The man was terminated in September of 2017 for reasons unrelated to these charges. Following his termination, Stern said that the company noticed a trend where merchants were being solicited after submitting new deals. Simultaneously, the company saw an increase in concerns raised by its ISO partners regarding backdooring. (Backdooring is when a broker submits a potential deal to a funder and that file leaks out to third parties whom the broker did not authorize to handle the information.)
In response to this, the company created a task force comprised of cyber security professionals that ultimately traced the leak to this former employee. A number of people have been arrested for stealing information from Yellowstone, but Stern said that this was by far the largest and most sophisticated theft.
“Nothing has hurt us more than this leak,” Stern said, “and it would have been impossible to catch this guy if we didn’t have a full-time team.”
The team Stern refers to is what he says has now become a separate Yellowstone office at an undisclosed location that is devoted exclusively to security. He said Yellowstone spent about $250,000 developing this external office and upgrading the company’s security systems. Additionally, employees and others can now anonymously email: security@yellowstonecapllc.com with information related to potential theft.
Square Capital is Funding $130 Million a MONTH
August 1, 2018
Today Square released its Q2 2018 earnings, revealing that in the second quarter Square Capital facilitated over 60,000 business loans totaling $390 million. This is an increase of 22% year over year, and a 13% increase compared to last quarter’s loan volume of $339 million.
Square’s growth was also driven by its Instant Deposit, Caviar and Cash Card products. Additionally, second quarter growth came from Square’s acquisitions, including Weebly, which provides tools to help individuals and small businesses create websites or online stores.
In today’s earnings call with Square CEO Jack Dorsey and CFO Sarah Friar, an analyst asked about plans for development of Square Capital. In response, Friar said that they plan for Square Capital to grow as the Square customer base grows. But she said Square is also taking more proactive steps to acquire Square Capital customers, including partnerships. Just last week, Square partnered with eBay to make loans to eBay merchants.
“We’re looking to partner [with companies] where their customers look like Square sellers,” Friar said.
Founded by Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey in 2009, Square is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices also in Canada, Japan, Australia, Ireland, and the UK. Dorsey is also the CEO of Twitter.
Shopify’s Merchant Cash Advance Business Grows
July 31, 2018Today Shopify released its Q2 2018 earnings report, revealing that Shopify Capital issued $68.5 million in merchant cash advances in the second quarter of 2018, an increase of 84% compared to the $37.2 million issued in the second quarter of last year. Shopify Capital has advanced nearly $300 million to merchants since they launched in April 2016, $80 million of which was outstanding on June 30, 2018.
Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, Shopify currently powers over 600,000 businesses in approximately 175 countries. The stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange and the Toronto Stock Exchange as SHOP.
Syndication at Heart of SEC and Criminal Investigation into 1st Global Capital
July 31, 2018
New light was shed into the bankruptcy filing of 1st Global Capital this morning. The investigations by the SEC and the US Attorney’s office are related to possible securities law violations, “including the alleged offer and sale of unregistered securities, the alleged sale of securities by unregistered brokers, and the alleged commission of fraud in connection with the offer, purchase, and sale of securities.”
The company is also being investigated by several states attorneys general where individuals were solicited to invest into merchant cash advance deals.
No charges have been filed in these investigations to-date, but they have prevented the company from being in a position to raise new capital.
There are more than $283 million in unsecured lender claims. Of the 20 largest creditors, all of them are individuals or their retirement accounts.
The company’s two main executives, Carl Ruderman and Steven A. Schwartz, relinquished their powers and resigned on Friday. Darice Lang, the company’s operations director, will stay on and report to the newly appointed Chief Restructuring Officer.
The company’s 1,000+ individual unsecured creditors (syndicates) loaned money to be invested in merchant cash advances and would receive a monthly statement to see how their money had been allocated. They also had access to a portal to track their accounts.
Of the $283 million owed to the individuals, the company’s unaudited financials reflect $238 million in A/R (primarily MCAs outstanding), $21 million of intercompany accounts, and $17.3 million in unrestricted cash.
1st Global generated $22.6 million in revenue in 2017 and $29.3 million in revenue in the first 6 months of 2018.
1 Global Capital Files Chapter 11
July 30, 2018
UPDATE: A joint motion filed this morning explained that the companies were forced to file bankruptcy “in order to address a sudden and acute liquidity crisis and to preserve their assets and business operations for the benefit of the individual lenders and all other constituencies. As a result of the investigations commenced by the US Attorney’s Office and Securities and Exchange Commission, with which the Debtors have been and will continue cooperating, the Debtors have ceased their pre-petition effort to raise capital.”
1 Global Capital LLC filed for Chapter 11 on Friday, according to a voluntary petition filed in the Southern District of Florida. The company’s estimated assets and liabilities exceed $100 million while the number of estimated creditors was listed as between 1,000 and 5,000.
A related company, 1 West Capital LLC, also filed for Chapter 11.
Greenberg Traurig, LLP has been retained to assist on the companies’ behalves.
In a joint motion filed this morning, both entities described themselves as “providing direct merchant cash advances to small businesses across the United States.”
Enova’s Small Business Financing Originations Drop
July 30, 2018Enova CEO David Fisher revealed last week that their small business financing operations had declined. “Our small business financing portfolio represented 8% of our total loan book at the end of Q2,” Fisher said on the July 26th earnings call. “We are remaining cautious on this space as the market rationalizes. As a result, our loan portfolio contracted 10% year-over-year and originations were down 23% year-over-year.”
Enova owns two small business financing subsidiaries, Headway Capital and The Business Backer.
While no official announcement has been made, Jim Salters, founder of The Business Backer, updated his LinkedIn profile to reflect that as of last month, he is no longer CEO of the company.
