Industry News
LendAcademy P2P/Investor Forum is Returning
June 14, 2021The P2P Lending/Investor Forum formerly at LendAcademy.com is coming back!
In late May, the online forum at LendAcademy.com went offline. Soon after, the forum URL was redirected to a note from the company that said the server hosting the data was no longer accessible.
“Upon further investigation it seems that our web hosting company, GC Solutions, has suddenly gone out of business,” they wrote. “We can no longer access our web portal to manage the site. We have left voicemails and emails so far to no avail. We received no warning and were taken completely by surprise. The backups we have are also with the hosting company.”
With the data seemingly permanently lost, deBanked acquired the rights to it last week (just the forum), with the hope that some proprietary methods of forensic recovery would be successful. A significant portion of the forum has since been restored, hosted now at debanked.com/p2pforum.
It is still a work in progress. There are still formatting issues and a number of missing posts. Passwords were also lost. If you were a user on the forum and wish for your account access to be restored, you must email us at info@debanked.com.
Thank you for your patience.
deBanked is affiliated with 3 other forums as well, namely:
deBanked Forums
DailyFunder
Small-Business-Forum.net
The original post announcing the loss:
deBanked Celebrates 4,000 Days Since Inception
June 13, 2021
It’s been 4,000 days since deBanked first came online as a blog, originally as MerchantProcessingResource.com in 2010.
I did not anticipate on Day 1 that I would still be here more than 10 years later, but here I am!
Thanks to everyone that has been reading, watching, following along, and attending our events. It has made the journey thus far very enjoyable.
I look forward to seeing you all again in person at Broker Fair 2021 in New York City.
Balboa Capital Closes $50 Million Corp. Note Financing
June 9, 2021
Equipment financer, SMB, and franchise financier Balboa Capital, closed a $50 million corporate note financing from a “consortium of prominent, U.S.-based institutional investors.” The firm said it plans to use the financing to refinance a portion of corporate debt, and to fund working capital.
“This transaction demonstrates the strength of our business and our investors’ support for our strategy and growth potential in 2021 and beyond,” CFO Heather Parker said. “We are well-positioned as one of the largest independent financing companies in the United States and will continue to play a meaningful role in the nation’s economic recovery by helping small businesses access growth capital.”
Brean Capital, LLC served as Balboa Capital’s Exclusive Advisor and Placement Agent in connection with this transaction.
Last October, the firm secured its seventh equipment asset-backed securitization valued at $201 million. “This is another step toward our key business objectives, which are to increase our financial flexibility, continue our growth, and maintain sufficient capital during any economic condition,” Parker said.
Marqeta Goes Public on The NASDAQ
June 9, 2021
Marqeta went public on the Nasdaq this afternoon, raising $1.2 billion and pricing higher than expectations. The firm priced 45.5 million shares at $27, and prices rose to over $30 a share.
Marqeta sells payment tech designed to detect fraud by issuing physical cards to independent contractor firms like DoorDash and Instacart. Contractors use Marqeta cards at point-of-sale in restaurants and supermarkets. Marqeta also enables Square’s Cash App debit card and Buy Now Pay Later fintech firms Affirm and Klarna to move money.
The firm applied for a public offering on May 15th, posting an annualized first quarter 2021 revenue growth of 123% to $108 million and a 2020 annual revenue that had doubled to $290.3 million.
Forward Financing Gets $250M to Grow
June 4, 2021
Forward Financing announced a $250 million credit facility from one of their current capital providers.
“This is a big win for our business and a testament to our strong financial performance throughout this difficult past year,” said Eugene Wong, Vice President of Strategy and Finance. “The increased facility gives us the flexible capital we need to grow and expand so that we can support the small business economy as it recovers on the other side of the COVID pandemic.”
Forward said it reported growing 60% in the past six months and expected to double the employee headcount in the coming year. The numbers back this up: the firm originated a total of $165,826,203 across 6,142 advances in 2020, a representative said. Forward reached a total of $1B in funding as of March 2021 since the firm was founded in 2012.
Irish E-commerce Revenue-Based Funder Raises $76 Million Series A After First Year
May 27, 2021
An Irish revenue-based e-commerce financing platform called Wayflyer raised $76 million in a funding Series A round this past week. It has been a roaring first year for the small fintech, so far funding $150 million to online merchants. The firm just launched its cash advance product 14 months ago and raised $10.2M in a seed round only six months ago.
Wayflyer offers e-commerce sales-based funding, without the need for collateral, from $10k up to $20M. They partner with firms across the UK, including a recent deal with the international athleisure brand Gym+Coffee.
Left Lane Capital led the round with investments from DST Global, QED Investors, Speedinvest, and Zinal Growth. The successful funding comes after the firm widened its credit facility by $100M to keep up with the demand for capital and a partnership announcement with Adobe Commerce.
The cofounders, Aidan Corbett and Jack Pierse came together in 2019. Back then, Corbett led an online marketing analytics firm called Conjura when Pierse, a former venture capitalist, proposed using analytic tech to underwrite what amounts to digital MCAs.
“Jack came to me and said, ‘You should stop using our marketing analytics engine to do these big enterprise SaaS solutions, and instead use them to underwrite e-commerce businesses for short-term finance,'” Corbett told Tech Crunch. “We just had our heads down and started repurposing the platform for it to be an underwriting platform.”
Launching in April 2020, Wayflyer funded $600,000 in the first month. In March of 2021 alone, the firm did about $36 million in advances.
“So, it’s been a pretty aggressive kind of growth,” Corbett said.
deBanked to Livestream from the SEAA Show in Bonita Springs
May 21, 2021May 24th LIVE schedule: 4:45pm – 6:30pm
May 25th LIVE schedule: 9:00 – 10:45am, 3:00 – 4:00pm, 5:00 – 6:30pm
deBanked will be streaming live from the Southeast Acquirers Association conference on May 24th and 25th in Bonita Springs, FL. The payments show celebrating its 20th anniversary is expected to have nearly 800 people IN PERSON.
The livestream will be available at scheduled times at deBanked.com/tv/. We will be speaking with executives across the payments and small business finance industries.
Vaccinated New Yorkers No Longer Have to Wear Masks
May 19, 2021Vaccinated New Yorkers are back, maskless, at 100% capacity. Governor Cuomo went live from Radio City Music hall for a press conference and Twitter announcement to outline the specifics.
“Effective this Wednesday, we’re going to adopt the CDC guidelines and regulations on masks and social distance,” Cuomo said. “If you are vaccinated, you are safe. No masks, no social distancing.”
Effective Wednesday, NYS will adopt the CDC's new mask & social distancing guidance for vaccinated people.
Unvaccinated people should continue to wear a mask.
Masks will still be required on public transit, in schools & some communal settings. Private venues may require masks.
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) May 17, 2021
The new guidelines said you still need to wear a mask on public transportation, on the subways, buses, healthcare facilities, and schools, in nursing homes, homeless shelters, and correctional facilities. Private businesses will still be able to set their own restrictions like no mask, no entry.
“Individual private venues have the ability to add additional guidelines to the state and CDC,” Cuomo said. “For our part, we’re adopting the CDC and saying ‘lets open.'”
Many chains, from Starbucks to CVS, are already welcoming the maskless vaccinated with open arms. The outdoor food and beverage curfew is gone, while the indoor will remain until May 31st.
“Over half the population is fully vaccinated now, but we have more work to do on vaccinations,” Cuomo said. “We have to get back to life, and living, and do it the way New Yorkers do it. We have to do it quickly and robustly.”
17.6 million doses of vaccine have been doled out to New Yorkers. 52.2% of the population over 18 are fully vaccinated, and 61.8% of the over 18 crowds have at least one shot in the arm. The average number of deaths a day from covid is below 20, dropping to just 11 on Monday. With numbers like that, anyone with a vaccine will be free from wearing a mask from now on. Social distancing, inside or outside, is ending. The 50% caps on dining, gyms, and other indoor activities, are also going away.
To prove vaccination at the door, the state created Excelsior Pass- a free mobile app that lets users connect their vaccine to a scannable QR code. Users have to first register their vaccine on the Excelsior website and can use the app to show negative PCR test results.
