Angela Ceresnie was "really comfortable" being COO at Orchard Platform , the fintech firm she co-founded. In 2016, she took on the same role at Climb Credit , which provides student loans for vocational programs and career training. (This year the company raised $50 million in debt from Goldman Sachs, and last month finalized  $9.8 million in series A venture capital.) In 2018, Ceresnie was offered Climb's top job. Eventually, she  learned to grow into it . --As told to Maria Aspan
I've always been really good at assessing new problems, breaking them down into their component parts, and then figuring out how to solve them. In high school, I was always good at math, but I was really good at logic, which is a classic chief operating officer skill. Having been Orchard's COO, there were many challenges at Climb where I was like, "Oh, yeah. I've done this." Different company, same thing. It's not rocket science. When I was approached for Climb's top role, the biggest question was, "Do I want to be a CEO?" I talked to a lot of people, but being a CEO is kind of like childbirth. People can explain it a million times, but you won't know it until you go through it. You consistently deal with scenarios you've never seen before. Maybe at some point that stops. It hasn't for me, yet. My job had been to be the practical person, to know all the numbers and give a sense that someone's running a tight ship. Especially for fund-raising: As the COO, I'm not thinking, "What's the big-picture answer?" I'm thinking, "What's the practical answer?" When you're the CEO, you need to be the visionary who's explaining how there's going to be a massive opportunity, and also run the tight ship. You also have these moments as CEO: You're in a meeting, and a really hard question gets asked--a gnarly question that no one really knows how to answer--and you have to have a good answer. Internally, as CEO, many employees don't want to problem-solve with you. They want to put their best foot forward. Being a part of the messy figuring-it-out--that doesn't make everyone comfortable. I've been working on spotting when not to meddle, to let people figure it out--but also figuring out when I do need to meddle, when something has raised to a level where it is actually my job. I had a lot of imposter syndrome at Orchard. I had had no experience with startups, and I was also a mom. I was like, "All the startups are run by 22-year-old white men. I'm not that. I'm pregnant." I didn't feel like I fit into the box. I have a network of advisers and mentors, and I would like to hire a CEO coach. That's something you see more and more at big companies. A coach can be that first line when you've got some complicated thing, and you don't want to talk to your staff, because maybe you don't know the path, and don't want to talk to your investors, because you don't want to go to them with some nebulous thing. But I've also tried to develop that muscle of not needing external validation. I have a sense of where I will struggle and where I will be naturally strong. It's been fun to take these more amorphous problems and figure out how I can solve them the way I solve problems. So far, when I've challenged myself to do things, I've been able to do them. So, I'm ready.

How I Overcame Imposter Syndrome, Learned to Delegate Like Crazy, and Became a Successful CEO

Kabbage, Orchard, Karrot… there’s a theme emerging
Small business lender Kabbage is rumoured to be acquiring lending platform Orchard Platform Markets, reports David Penn at Finovate . Orchard, which boasts the support of former Citigroup and Morgan Stanley bosses Vikram Pandit and John Mack, provides information on the marketplace lending industry to Wall Street companies. No terms have been made available and neither Kabbage nor Orchard have commented on the potential acquisition. Orchard, which launched in 2013, recently attempted to change its business model to serve as a platform for trading loan securities. The failure of this initiative to gain traction, according to Bloomberg, led to the company’s desire to find a buyer of late. The firm had raised $40 million in funding from investors including Spark Capital and Thrive Capital. Kabbage and Orchard have a history. The two announced a partnership back in the spring of 2015 that gave institutional investment managers on the Orchard platform the ability to access Kabbage’s consumer loan product, Karrot. The partnership also helped Kabbage add to its consumer lending business thanks to new access to Orchard’s constituency of sophisticated investors. Kabbage made headlines last year when rumours surfaced that the company was raising money for the specific purpose of acquisitions. At the time, marketplace lender OnDeck was widely believed to be the primary target. Earlier this month, Kabbage announced a partnership with Ingo Money to accelerate loan payments to SMEs. After finishing 2017 with a new COO and having reached a new milestone in extending more than $4 billion to more than 130,000 small businesses, Kabbage began 2018 by expanding its line of credit to $250,000 in a bid to serve larger business customers as well as its small business base. “Giving small businesses the peace of mind and security to focus less on their finances and more on their passions is a key tenet at Kabbage,” the company’s new COO, Bob Sharpe, said when the news was announced. “Increasing our lines of credit to $250,000 significantly enhances our ability to solve financial hurdles for larger and more specialised businesses that may otherwise be unachievable, which we see in the market today.”
Founded in 2009, the Atlanta, Georgia-based fintech has raised $1.6 billion in funding. Among its products is Kabbage Card (part of the company’s broader Kabbage Everywhere initiative), which gives business cardholders the ability to take their Kabbage credit line with them wherever they go, immediately deducting transactions amounts from available funds and providing the user with a confirmation by SMS text.

SME lender Kabbage to acquire fellow lendtech Orchard?

Small business lending platform Kabbage is making plans to acquire Orchard Platform Markets, a provider of lending data and services. According to American Banker , several sources said that Kabbage plans to use Orchard’s technology. Orchard co-founders Matt Burton and David Snitkof are also expected to join Kabbage if the deal goes through. There’s no word on how much Kabbage will pay, and nothing has been finalized. Both companies declined to comment. Founded in 2013, New York-based Orchard initially provided Wall Street firms with data on the marketplace lending sector. Investors included Citibank’s Vikram Pandit and Morgan Stanley’s John Mack. But the business began to falter after Orchard decided to become a trading platform for loan securities. Unfortunately, large marketplaces such as LendingClub did not want to give the company permission to trade their loans because of regulatory concerns. That resulted in Orchard searching for a buyer in recent weeks. Kabbage seems like a good fit. It focuses on small businesses and licenses technology to banks, much like Orchard. SoftBank invested $250 million into Kabbage last August, bringing its total equity investment to more than $500 million. For its part, Orchard has raised about $40 million, with funding from Spark Capital, Thrive Capital and other investors, and last raised financing in July. Just last month, there were rumors that Kabbage was looking to pick up a new round of equity funding for the purpose of acquiring rival SMB lender OnDeck . As of last year, Kabbage had also entered a strategic partnership with Banco Santander SA to provide loans to small businesses in Britain. The company also announced that it has priced the largest asset-backed securitization of small business loans in the online lending industry. That means it will be selling about $525 million worth of loans to investors, which Kabbage says will allow it to up its loan volume to around $2.7 billion.

Kabbage Acquires Lending Data Provider Orchard Platform Markets

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Small business banking company Kabbage is set to acquire startup Orchard Platform Markets, a provider of lending data and services, it was reported yesterday. The transaction, as yet unconfirmed by Kabbage and Orchard, would integrate Orchard’s technology into Kabbage’s platform, with some Orchard employees set to move to Kabbage’s New York office. Plans for the deal remain private, as does the amount that Kabbage will pay, sources familiar with the matter told American Banker. Founded in 2013, Orchard provides marketplace lending data to financial institutions. The company had been recently searching for a buyer, sources familiar with the matter told American Banker. The startup has raised approximately $40 million in funding from investors including Spark Capital. Bookmark

Kabbage Set to Acquire Lending Data Startup Orchard Platform Markets

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NEW YORK, April 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- inFactor Corp, an integrated financial technology company providing liquidity solutions across the spectrum of non-bank lending, has announced today that Ethan Schwarzbach has joined the company to head up the company's new inFactorIQ platform. Mr. Schwarzbach joins inFactor from Orchard Platform where he most recently served as a Manager on the Business Development team. Orchard Platform is the leading provider of data, technology, and software to the online lending industry. Prior to Orchard Platform, Mr. Schwarzbach served as a senior associate on the US interest rate trading desk at the Royal Bank of Scotland where he specialized in exotic interest rate options, mortgage backed securities, and interest rate derivative trading. Mr. Schwarzbach holds a Bachelor of Arts in Public Policy Studies from Duke University. He will be working out of the company's New York City office. The inFactorIQ platform, which will debut at Lendit Fintech USA 2018, on April 9th, in San Francisco, CA, is technology platform that offers an end-to-end loan servicing, payments processing, borrower verification, and analytics solution for SME loan originators and all associated parties involved in the lifecycle of a loan. McLean Wilson, the Chief Executive Officer of inFactor said, "Ethan is a great addition to our team. He has an exceptional understanding of the FinTech universe and brings a strong subject matter expertise to the organization. I have known Ethan for a number of years and am very pleased to have him heading up this project for us." Regarding the new position and the inFactor IQ platform, Mr. Schwarzbach said, "inFactorIQ was born out of countless concerns from investors and originators regarding data integrity, transparency, and real-time access to verified portfolio performance. By initiating the borrower application process, creating loan documents, servicing the loans, and processing all payments through our platform, inFactorIQ controls the entire data flow, and in turn we are able to grant all stakeholders real-time, secure access to unadulterated, verified data." About inFactor:
inFactor is an integrated Financial Technology company providing liquidity solutions across the spectrum of non-bank lending. The company exists to fill the chasm between the capital needs of small and midsized businesses and the services offered by the traditional banking system. inFactor operates three distinct, but complimentary, lines of business including direct finance, institutional structured finance, and servicing & analytics. About inFactorIQ:
As the servicing and analytics side of inFactor, inFactorIQ provides a full-suite of products and services tailored specifically to meet the needs of SME loan originators, institutional investors, brokers, and borrowers. Contacts:

FinTech Veteran Ethan Schwarzbach Joins inFactor To Head inFactorIQ Platform

Bloomberg operates as a global information and technology company in the financial data distribution and news provision sectors. The company offers real-time business and market information services, helping customers make informed financial decisions. It primarily serves the financial sector. It was founded in 1981 and is based in New York, New York.

Bloomberg

Online lending specialist Orchard Platform has inked an agreement to provide its data and analytics to Bloomberg terminal subscribers in an effort to provide information to the growing number of institutional investors interested in the growing asset class .

Orchard To Launch Data Page On Bloomberg Terminal

Experian (LSE: EXPN) operates as a multinational data analytics and consumer credit reporting company. The company offers financial services, identity fraud and crime protection, credit reporting and services, business-to-business (B2B) account management, and more. It serves individuals, businesses, lenders, and organizations. The company was founded in 1996 and is based in Dublin, Ireland.

Experian

OnDeck (NYSE: ONDK) uses data aggregation and electronic payment technology to evaluate the financial health of small businesses and to deliver capital to a market underserved by traditional bank loans. The platform enables small businesses to obtain affordable loans to meet daily operating and long-term goals. It was founded in 2006 and is based in South Jordan, Utah. In July 2020, OnDeck was acquired by Enova International.

OnDeck

ApplePie Capital operates as a franchise crowdfunding platform. It brings structure and efficiency to franchise capital raising. The company partners with franchisors to help address their growth challenges and provide franchisees with a new way to raise capital from institutional investors and their own personal networks. The company was founded in 2014 and is based in San Francisco, California.

ApplePie Capital

loanDepot is a digital commerce company that operates in the mortgage industry. The company offers services such as home purchasing, refinancing, and equity loans, making it easier and less stressful for customers to buy or refinance a home. It primarily serves individuals looking to purchase or refinance homes. It is based in Foothill Ranch, California.

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This collection contains companies that provide alternative means for obtaining a loan for personal or business use and companies that provide software to lenders for the application, underwriting, funding or loan collection process. 

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Orchard Platform is a technology and infrastructure provider for marketplace lending. Orchard supports operational efficiencies to help institutional investors, investment managers and loan originators connect and transact. Founded in New York City in 2013, Orchard's mission is to build the systems that will allow marketplace lending to efficiently grow into a global financial market. Orchard enables institutional investors and investment managers to allocate capital to marketplace lending, with best practices, manager identification, portfolio benchmarking and strategic access to supply. Orchard helps originators across multiple asset classes diversify their capital structure with marketplace lending distribution, and provides market insights, scalable infrastructure and reporting to enable originators to focus on making loans and giving borrowers more choices.

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