Overview

Behalf specializes in providing instant funding at reasonable rates to help small business pay their vendors. This service is particularly attractive to new and small companies that cannot qualify for prime business loans or low interest rate credit cards. Behalf was launched in Israel by Benjy Feinberg, Shai Feinberg and Jeremy Esekow, and expanded to New York in 2011, where it has its United States headquarters. The company has received $129 million in venture capital and has an A- rating with the BBB.

How Does Behalf Work?

Behalf provides small businesses with funding to pay off their vendors. Instead of giving out loans in cash, Behalf pays vendors directly so that businesses can buy more and vendors can sell more without having to pay predatory interest rates. Behalf offers lightning fast approvals (less than a minute) and transfers funds to vendors within three days.

Although Behalf markets calls its product a loan, it is very similar to a line of credit. Once you are approved for a loan amount, you can use fractions of that amount to pay off vendors and as soon as you pay repay what you borrow, you get access to more credit.

What Are Behalf's Interest Rates?

Behalf charges 1% to 3% of the loan principal every month until you pay off the loan. For example, if you borrow $1,000 for one month, you will pay $10 to $30 in fees depending on the results of Behalf's credit check. If you borrow the same amount for 3 months, you will pay $30 to $90 in fees.

This method makes it easy to calculate the overall cost of a loan, but it makes it hard to compare with other loans. If you annualize these fees, it translates into interest rates of 21% to 61% APR, which although more expensive than prime loans and most credit cards is still better than the fees charged by many alternative business loan providers, not to mention payday lenders.

How Much Money Can I Borrow from Behalf?

Behalf offers loans from $300 to $50,000. How much a company can borrow will depend on the results of Behalf's credit check. However, Behalf has much less stringent requirements than most lenders. For instance, it doesn't have any minimum requirements for annual revenue and time in business.

Which States Does Behalf Operate In?

Behalf operates in all 50 states.

What Is Behalf's Application Process Like?

It really doesn't get much simpler than Behalf's application process. Borrowers only need to provide their personal address, their business address and their Social Security Number. That's it. From that information Behalf assesses how much your business can borrow from $300 to $50,000. The entire application process takes less than a minute and your vendors can get access to the cash within three days.

How Is Behalf Better than Other Lenders?

Behalf is not a cheap source of credit, but its rates are reasonable when compared to other lenders that offer business loans so quickly and require so little paperwork. Behalf reports to business credit reporting agencies, which can help businesses improve their credit and apply for cheaper loans in the future. The turnover time from applying to receiving the funds is hard to beat. Behalf is a particularly attractive option for borrowers who hate providing tax and financial documents to lenders. The only information borrowers must provide is their address and SSN.