Industry News
Brief: Lendio Raises $20 million for Growth Marketing
October 25, 2016
Salt Lake City-based loan marketplace Lendio raised $20 million in new funding through a round led by Comcast Ventures and Stereo Capital. Other participants included Napier Park, Blumberg Capital, Tribeca Venture Partners and North Hill Ventures, all of whom were exiting investors. Lendio plans to use the funds towards growth marketing.
“Over the past year, we’ve been busy testing new customer acquisition strategies. With this new round of capital, we now have the resources to launch these exciting new initiatives that will help us to expand our brand awareness and help small businesses find the best loan for any situation,” said Lendio CEO Brock Blake.
Lendio is a loan marketplace that has done partnerships right. The company’s three lucrative deals with American Express, GoDaddy and Staples fueled $63 million in Q3 funding. Last month, the company added Detroit-based working capital financing company Supplier Success to its platform, to improve capital access to businesses owned by minority and women owners.
“Lendio’s success securing meaningful partnerships and impressive year-over-year growth shows the company is poised to go big,” said Dave Zilberman, managing director of Comcast Ventures, who will join Lendio’s board of directors as part of the transaction.
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.
Time To Get Back On Track! The Commercial Loan Broker Conference and Lend360 Kick Off This Week
October 2, 2016
If you’re one of those people who book things at the last minute, well then there’s technically still time to register for the NACLB’s Commercial Loan Broker Conference and Lend360. As each are taking place over roughly the same few days this week, you should expect a great experience regardless of which one you choose to go to. You could also split your staff up and attend both!
I’ll personally be at the Commercial Loan Broker Conference at the Red Rock Casino in Las Vegas and am scheduled to participate in an industry reporter’s panel there early Thursday morning.
At last year’s Lend360, Congressman David Scott (D-GA) famously blessed the online lenders after urging them to educate policymakers about what they do.
The industry hopes to see you at one or both of these shows:
Commercial Loan Broker Conference
Who should go?: Business loan brokers, MCA brokers, equipment finance companies, lenders, MCA funders, investors, etc.
When is it?: October 4 – 6
Where is it?: Las Vegas
How do I sign up?: Register here
Lend360
Who should go?: Consumer Lenders, Business loan brokers, MCA brokers, MCA funders, investors, etc.
When is it?: October 5 – 7
Where is it?: Chicago
How do I sign up?: Register here
Bonus: Use promo code deBanked15 for 15% off the registration price
Kalamata Capital Chairman Steven Mandis Authors Second Book
September 25, 2016
Kalamata Capital Chairman Steven Mandis is doing more than just approving small businesses up to $750,000 in under 24 hours. He’s also just authored a new book, The Real Madrid Way: How Values Created the Most Successful Sports Team on the Planet.
Not a subject you expected from a tech-driven small business lender? Steven Mandis is not your average industry executive…
Prior to Kalamata, he worked at Goldman Sachs in the investment banking, private equity, and proprietary trading areas. He assisted Hank Paulson and other senior executives on special projects and was a portfolio manager in one of the largest and most successful proprietary trading areas at Goldman. After leaving Goldman, he cofounded a multibillion-dollar global alternative asset management firm that was a trading and investment banking client of Goldman’s.
During the financial crisis, Mandis was a senior adviser to McKinsey & Company before becoming chief of staff to the president and COO of Citigroup and serving on executive, management, and risk committees at the firm.
He’s also an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School, where he teaches classes of MBA and executive MBA students on strategic issues facing investment banks and the European financial crisis.
His first book, What Happened to Goldman Sachs? was widely acclaimed. “Several authors have tackled the question of how Goldman’s culture changed post-1999 but none so deftly as Steven G. Mandis, a banker-turned-sociologist,” wrote the Wall Street Journal. I also read it cover-to-cover myself back in March of 2015.
In Real Madrid, “Mandis is the first researcher to rigorously analyze both the on-the-field and business aspects of a sports team. What he learns is completely unexpected and challenges the conventional wisdom that moneyball-fueled data analytics are the primary instruments of success.”
Former NBA Commissioner David Stern said of the book, “With unprecedented behind-the-scenes access, this book is the most complete study of any sports team ever done–which leads to fascinating conclusions.”
Are you a finance buff? Sports buff? Perhaps both? You’ll want to read his new book.
Robocalls, You Say? There Were 986 of Them Made Every Second in August
September 13, 20162.64 billion: That’s the estimated number of robocalls that were made last month, jumping almost ten percent from July.
That’s 986 robocalls placed every second somewhere in the country.
According to California-based robocall blocking software company YouMail, Texas received the highest number of robocalls — 298.3 million, and robocallers from California made 206.7 million calls, the highest last month.
The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) that regulates interstate and international communication has been cracking down on unwanted robocalls and texts. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act blocks companies from robodialing cell phones without consent, however barring the exception of certain student loan debt collectors who represent the Department of Education.
And in its ongoing attempt to stop the “robocall scourge”, the FCC has turned to tech and telecom giants like AT&T, Google, Apple, Verizon and Comcast, urging the companies to make blocking software more effective.
A Day of Remembrance for Aviv Henry Boaz
September 13, 2016
On a day that America salutes its first responders, family and friends gathered in Hillside, NJ this past Sunday to raise funds for Hatzalah of Union County while honoring the memory of Aviv Henry Boaz, a former associate of Yellowstone Capital that recently passed away.
Hatzalah is an all-volunteer ambulance squad with many chapters around the country. According to Chief Yudi Abraham, the Union County chapter is actually the largest with 23 EMT responders, 13 dispatchers and 3 ambulances. Funds raised from the event enabled the chapter to replace an ambulance that was very old with a brand new one.
Emblazoned on the side is a dedication to Boaz. His father actually flew in from Israel to bear witness to it. Chief Abraham said the day was about “the tribute to Aviv Henry Boaz.”
Isaac Stern along with Yellowstone Capital’s family and friends made the day possible. “Yellowstone Capital is our largest supporter financially,” said Abraham. And what better way to honor Boaz than to make him a part of something that will help save lives, he added.
More than $80,000 was raised on Sunday.
Yellowstone Capital To Host Family BBQ Today on 9/11
September 11, 2016Yellowstone Capital is hosting a big outdoor family BBQ today in Hillside, NJ. The gathering includes a fundraiser for Hatzalah of Union County. A special dedication to Aviv Henry Boaz, a former Yellowstone Capital associate that recently passed away, will be presented on a newly purchased ambulance.
Letter From The Editor – Sept/Oct 2016
September 1, 2016What is marketplace lending? Lately it’s been looking more and more like Wall Street and banking. Goldman Sachs is now playing a more prominent role in the space while the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is considering a limited-charter framework, which would make the non-bank lenders more bank-like. Not to mention that things like securitizations, bond ratings and vintage performance are dominating news headlines. It all sounds very Wall Street indeed.
But while a segment of the industry looks to effectively merge back into the traditional banking system [ I suppose they are becoming “reBanked” 😉 ], there’s another segment chugging along just fine without the banks and we write with you in mind.
To that end, we asked, what are the challenges with funding merchants in Puerto Rico? Is it okay to fund marijuana-based businesses in states where it’s legal? And what’s the latest challenge to affect telemarketing efforts?
Maybe you are surprised to hear that telemarketing even has a place in the world of fintech especially since the media hype over the last few years has imagined an online-only Internet utopia where all lending happens in the cloud. Meanwhile, millions upon millions of dollars of transactions start with a guy or gal and a cold call.
There are rules, of course. You can’t just call anybody using whatever means you want and some people on the receiving end of those phone calls know that. Woe betide you who calls the wrong person the wrong way, our research discovered. The TCPA (Telephone Consumer Protection Act) is creating another burdensome layer of cost and some of the tactics being employed to extract penalties warrant close attention. It might not be future regulations that cause problems but existing ones. In this issue, we’ll show you why smiling and dialing do not always go hand in hand.
