A Vancouver-based financial technology company is boosting its lending portfolio to the tune of $30 million
Merchant Advance Capital announced March 15 it had secured the multimillion-dollar debt facility from Comvest Partners, private equity and credit investment firm based in Florida.
Merchant Advance Capital CEO David Gens told Business in Vancouver the company was able to secure “very attractive terms” that will allow it to pass on a reasonable rate to customers.
“It gives us a lot of price-competitive capital to go out and fund businesses,” he said.
Merchant Advance Capital specializes in offering small businesses loans and lines of credit over the Internet.
Gens said he currently splits his time between operating the company and securing capital to lend customers.
“It basically takes a fair bit of workload off of me. I can now just really focus on [making] our business as efficient as possible,” he said.
Despite Comvest’s ties to the U.S., Gens said his company is still focusing on offering its services to the Canadian market.
“It’s tougher than it was than, say, a few years back. There’s more competition, more players in the space but there’s still these industries where we can reach that fintech companies haven’t really reached,” he said.
“There’s still a lot of room to run. There’s still a lot of businesses that haven’t really explored what [funding] alternatives are out there.”
Gens said Merchant Advance’s unsecured working capital portfolio accounts for more than more than half the company’s business.
“That portfolio is still [business-to-consumer] businesses where we’re funding storefront businesses like restaurants, retail,” he said.
