In-Purchase Financing Provider Behalf Raises Over $100M to Expand Buy Now, Pay Later Capability for B2B

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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FXCM Group Reports Monthly Execution Data

LONDON and SYDNEY, Australia and JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, July 28, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — FXCM Group, LLC (“FXCM Group” or "FXCM"), a leading international provider of online foreign exchange trading, CFD trading, cryptocurrencies^ and related services, today released execution data for June 2021. To view execution data including historical spreads, execution speeds and historical price improvement data click here: https://www.fxcm.com/uk/about–fxcm/execution–transparency/

June 2021 All Instruments Highlights:*

  • 64.6% of orders executed at price1
  • 22.9% of orders executed with positive slippage2
  • 12.6% of orders executed with negative slippage3
  • Average execution speed 18 milliseconds4

Highlighted Instruments June 2021:

Instrument Peak
Spread5

Non–Peak
Spread
5

Effective
Spread
6
At Price
Orders
Positive
Slippage
Negative
Slippage
BTC/USD 46.4 46.1 46.3 54% 32% 13%
ETH/USD 2.7 2.7 2.7 65% 22% 13%
LTC/USD 0.4 0.4 0.4 42% 50% 7%
XAU/USD 0.4 0.4 0.4 52% 32% 16%
SPX500 0.5 0.5 0.5 47% 33% 20%
NAS100 1.5 1.5 1.5 39% 39% 22%
EUR/USD 0.1 0.4 0.2 77% 15% 9%
GBP/USD 0.3 0.9 0.5 72% 18% 10%
AUD/USD 0.2 0.5 0.3 79% 13% 8%

For more information and to open a live account, traders can contact an FXCM specialist 24 hours a day, 5 days a week.

^Cryptocurrency products are only available to Professional and Eligible Counterparty Clients under Forex Capital Markets Limited (“FXCM LTD”).

*These highlights come from orders that executed through FXCM Group from 1 June 2021 to 30 June 2021. Data excludes certain types of non–direct clients.

1Percentage of executed client trades# in June 2021, which were executed at the price clients requested.
2Percentage of executed client trades# in June 2021, which were executed at a more favorable price than the price clients requested.
3Percentage of executed client trades# in June 2021, which were executed at a less favorable price than the price clients requested.
4This defines the amount of time between when we receive the order until execution. This excludes internet latency and post trade booking.
5This data is compiled forex and CFD trading data from FXCM's Active Traders for 1 June 2021, to 30 June 2021. The data reflects average spreads made available to FXCM clients during all trading hours.
6This data is compiled forex and CFD trading data from FXCM's Active Traders for 1 June 2021, to 30 June 2021. The data reflects the spread at which trades were executed by FXCM clients during all trading hours.
#Client trades here cover stop, limit, "at market", and entry orders. Certain non–direct clients are excluded from the data. Limit and limit entry orders would only execute at the requested price or better and cannot receive negative slippage. Price improvements are subject to available liquidity.

About FXCM:
FXCM is a leading provider of online foreign exchange (FX) trading, CFD trading, and related services. Founded in 1999, the company's mission is to provide global traders with access to the world's largest and most liquid market by offering innovative trading tools, hiring excellent trading educators, meeting strict financial standards and striving for the best online trading experience in the market. Clients have the advantage of mobile trading, one–click order execution and trading from real–time charts. In addition, FXCM offers educational courses on FX trading and provides trading tools, proprietary data and premium resources. FXCM Pro provides retail brokers, small hedge funds and emerging market banks access to wholesale execution and liquidity, while providing high and medium frequency funds access to prime brokerage services via FXCM Prime. FXCM is a Leucadia Company.

Forex Capital Markets Limited: FCA registration number 217689 (www.fxcm.com/uk)

CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage.

73% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider.

You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

FXCM EU LTD: CySEC license number 392/20 (www.fxcm.com/eu)

CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage.

Between 74–89% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs.

You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

FXCM Australia Pty. Limited: AFSL 309763. Losses can exceed your deposited funds. The products may not be suitable for all investors. Please ensure that you fully understand the risks involved. If you decide to trade products offered by FXCM AU, you must read and understand the Financial Services Guide, Product Disclosure Statement, and Terms of Business on www.fxcm.com/au.

FXCM South Africa (PTY) Ltd: FSP No 46534 (www.fxcm.com/za). Our service includes products that are traded on margin and carry a risk of losses in excess of your deposited funds. The products may not be suitable for all investors. Please ensure that you fully understand the risks involved.

FXCM Markets Limited: Losses can exceed deposited funds. (www.fxcm.com/markets).

Media contact:
Chatsworth Communications
+44 (0) 20 7440 9780
fxcm@chatsworthcommunications.com


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