ECapital Corp. has been growing its reach as a factoring firm for emerging players in fashion and retail. Marius Silvasan, CEO of the Aventura, Fla.-based commercial financing business, which rebranded in 2020 after being known as Global Merchant Fund Corp. for many years, says that 6 percent of the company’s clients represent the textiles sector, which encompasses both retail and fashion.
ECapital “works with retailers, as well as distributors and manufacturers,” he said, adding that the factor has financed a “certain number” of direct-to-consumer labels for several years. Clients’ generate annual sales between $5 million and $100 million, with ECapital offering credit facilities from $50,000 to $20 million.
The 15-year-old company, which is focused on the U.S., U.K. and Canadian markets, has unlocked $4 billion in financing across 80 industries, and is processing over 2.5 million factored invoices per year. Silvasan said it is on track to distribute upwards of $5 billion in financing this year, aiming for $22 billion by 2031.
ECapital—which offers commercial finance, including receivables financing, supply chain financing and import financing; freight factoring; and asset-based lending—has grown its portfolio by 56 percent by acquiring four alternative financing firms last year, bringing its total acquisitions to eight in the past four years. Two such deals involved freight factoring firms while another gave ECapital a presence overseas. As a factoring firm, the company provides small and middle-market firms with working capital relative to quality of their underlying assets, like their receivables and the inventory they have on hand.
Silvasan says the pace of ECapital’s lending offers an early read on how economies are progressing. “From a general economic perspective, we see a continued increase in economic activity,” he said. There’s a strong correlation between the broader markets and activity in transportation and logistics, where ECapital has a “fairly large exposure,” he added, “and that sector is extremely robust at the moment.”
Much of that action stems from companies scrambling to rebuild their depleted inventors, which will fuel economic activity and recovery, he said. So far, the American economy appears to be outpacing the U.K. and Canada, though past and current lockdowns affecting the latter two are likely to blame, according to Silvarsan.