NEW YORK and RA'ANANA, Israel, July 28, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Behalf, Inc., a provider of In–Purchase Financing solutions for B2B sellers and buyers, today announced $19 million in new venture financing. The round was led by existing investors MissionOG, Viola Growth, Viola Credit and Vintage Investment Partners. New investors Migdal Insurance and La Maison Partners are also participating in the round.
In addition, Behalf announced the creation of a new debt facility totaling up to $100 million, provided by funds managed by Ares Management Corporation ("Ares"). The capital raised will enable Behalf to expand the availability of In–Purchase Financing to a broader array of B2B merchants and their SMB customers, while continuing to extend the capabilities of its industry–leading platform.
"The B2B eCommerce market is ripe for transformation. Merchants are recognizing the opportunity to drive new revenue by deploying In–Purchase Financing," said Rob Rosenblatt, CEO of Behalf. "At the same time, small and mid–sized businesses (SMBs) need access to affordable financing options "" an evergreen challenge exacerbated during COVID. Even as the U.S. economy is improving, SMBs continue to seek financial assistance to purchase critical supplies, inventory and equipment. Oftentimes they lack the requisite spend capacity on their personal or business credit cards. By offering In–Purchase Financing with flexible terms, B2B merchants can increase average order size by as much as 50–80 percent while reducing their risk, improving cash flow and driving operational efficiencies."
Behalf's In–Purchase Financing solution provides B2B merchants with all the benefits of consumer–focused Buy Now, Pay Later offerings along with capabilities tailored specifically for business–to–business commerce including:
- Seamless checkout that significantly improves the customer experience, drives same–session checkout, and enhances customer loyalty.
- Easy integration with existing point–of–sale systems, avoiding disruptions that can otherwise impact real–time commerce.
- Incorporation of advanced underwriting and scoring models based on expansive datasets, business history and other predictive metrics to address the added complexity and risk of SMB lending "" enabling Behalf to offer financing when traditional banks are unable to do so.
- The ability to serve the needs of virtually all of the merchant's business customers "" small, medium and large.
- Financing for transactions of significantly greater average order value vis–a–vis consumer financing offerings.
- Sharing best practices with B2B merchants to enable them to provide different financing options to sell more product.
"We are pleased to invest in Behalf's current round," said Guy Fischer, Migdal's Deputy CEO and Chief Investment Officer. "This investment is made out of our $1.5 billion (USD) internal FinTech fund and is in line with our strategy of investing in FinTech companies that have robust growth potential. To support Behalf's growth, we are also in discussions with the company about a potential $100 million (USD) debt facility. This injection of capital should support a steep growth curve for the company."
"We think there is a great market opportunity for a B2B offering targeting the more complex, real–time financing needs of SMBs," said Jeffrey Kramer, Partner and Head of ABS in the Alternative Credit strategy of the Ares Credit Group. "We are excited to provide a debt facility that will help support the company to achieve its growth objectives."
About Behalf
Behalf offers alternative B2B financing solutions tailor–made for real–time commerce across e– tail, assisted–selling and other merchant sales channels. The solutions enable merchants to outsource their net terms and extended financing programs, and receive payment as early as next business day. With Behalf, merchants can significantly increase their business customers' spending power without tying up capital or devoting resources to the business of credit and collections. Customers can receive in–purchase financing from Net–30 to up to 180 days.
Behalf's e–commerce financing solution is offered by an array of merchants across the electronics, mobile phone resale, business supplies, medical and health, home/hardware and other merchant categories. To date, Behalf has on–boarded over 19,000 merchants and 95,000 business customers, and provided over $1 billion in financing. For more information, visit https://www.behalf.com/.
About Ares Management Corporation
Ares Management Corporation (NYSE: ARES) is a leading global alternative investment manager offering clients complementary primary and secondary investment solutions across the credit, private equity, real estate and infrastructure asset classes. We seek to provide flexible capital to support businesses and create value for our stakeholders and within our communities. By collaborating across our investment groups, we aim to generate consistent and attractive investment returns throughout market cycles. As of March 31, 2021, including the acquisition of Landmark Partners, which closed June 2, 2021, and the acquisition of Black Creek Group, which closed July 1, 2021, Ares Management's global platform had approximately $239 billion of assets under management with approximately 2,000 employees operating across North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and the Middle East. For more information, please visit www.aresmgmt.com. Follow Ares on Twitter @Ares_Management.
About Ares Alternative Credit
Ares' Alternative Credit strategy focuses on direct lending and investing in assets that generate contractual cash flows and fills gaps in the capital markets between credit, private equity and real estate. Ares Alternative Credit targets investments across the capital structure in specialty finance, lender finance, loan portfolios, equipment leasing, structured products, net lease, cash flow streams (royalties, licensing, management fees), and other asset–focused investments. Co–Headed by Keith Ashton and Joel Holsinger, Ares Alternative Credit leverages a broadly skilled and cohesive team of approximately 40 investment professionals as of March 31, 2021.
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