In January of 2006, Andy Reiser, along with 10 employees, founded the company as Strategic Funding Source with the goal of providing the small business community – a significantly underbanked group – with a trusted and reliable source of financing. Over the following two years the company focused on expansion and opened a second office in Williamsburg, Virginia to accommodate a growing customer service department tasked with supporting our more than 400 small businesses clients. In 2008, as a result of the great recession, small business owners faced even more financing hardships, with banks tightening their lending requirements to such a degree that small business owners were left with little to no options to finance their businesses. With a long-term strategy at hand, the company focused on refining its underwriting process to address the severity of this new situation for business owners. Through these efforts, we were able to fund more than $118.5 Million to more than 2200 businesses and remain profitable despite the economic recession.
The end of the great recession did not alleviate the challenges small businesses faced in accessing financing. With these challenges in mind, the company set out to expand its ability to provide this financing to business owners across the country. Through the early years of this new decade, we focused our efforts on securing additional bank lines and outside investments. In 2012, we received our first senior bank line from Capital One and in 2014 we secured a $110 Million Line of Equity from Pine Brook Investment firm, enabling us to make much-needed technological advancements to our funding process and allowing us to fund 10,000 businesses with more than $550 Million in capital.
We continued to see the needs of our business owners grow and change over the next five years. To address these changing needs, we added a financing network to expand our ability to assist all business owners in acquiring financing, regardless of their unique situations and needs. By 2018, 25,000 small businesses had accessed over $2 Billion in financing through Kapitus. In order to support this volume of clients and set ourselves up for continued growth, we had to significantly expand our team and build a rock-solid group of executive leaders. Throughout the 2nd half of the 2010s we added a Chief Revenue Officer, Chief Risk Officer, Chief Product Officer, Chief Financial Officer and General Counsel. In addition, we grew our team to 225 employees.
Despite a pandemic and other global and economic challenges, Kapitus remains strong as an independent business financing resource. We have continued to expand – adding offices in Los Angeles, CA and Chennai, India and increasing our team to over 360 members. As of March 2024, business owners throughout the U.S. have accessed more than $5 Billion in financing through Kapitus
We are fair and guided by strong values.
We live up to our track record of excellence.
We are relentless in helping small businesses.
We strive to understand the unique journey of every individual.
Andrew Reiser
Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
Ben Johnston
Chief Operating Officer
Anthony Rose
Chief Financial Officer
Arun Narayan
Chief Product Officer
Prior to founding Kapitus in 2006, Andy served as the CEO of Arcavista Corporation, a Managing Director of Donald & Co. Securities, Inc., EVP of Fidelco Capital Group, and President of Windsor Group, Inc. He began his career as a CPA with Coopers & Lybrand and Price Waterhouse. He holds a BS from Boston University’s Questrom School of Business.
Ben joined Kapitus in 2014 as Chief Strategy Officer and became COO in January 2017. Prior to joining Kapitus, Ben was a Principal of Pine Brook Partners, a New York-based private equity firm, a Senior Associate at Lightyear Capital and an Analyst in the Office of the Chairman at PaineWebber. He holds a BA from Colby College and an MBA from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.
Anthony joined Kapitus in February of 2018 as CFO. Prior to joining Kapitus, Anthony was Chief Administrative Officer of Dime Community Bancshares, CFO of ISI Group, CFO of the Global Equities Investment Bank at Credit Suisse, VP of Capital and Balance Sheet Strategy and FP&A at JPMorgan Chase, as well as an Equity Research Analyst at JPMorgan Chase. He holds a BA from the University of Wisconsin and an MBA from Columbia University.
Arun joined Kapitus in 2015 as Senior Vice President of Risk & Analytics after previously serving as Vice President and Managing Director of Lighting Science Group Corporation, Management Consultant for PRTM, Manager of Discover Financial services and Marketing Manager at Infosys Technologies Ltd. Arun holds an MBA from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business.
Jeff Newman
Chief Risk Officer
Josh Jones
Chief Revenue Officer
Jesse Carlson
General Counsel
Ella Haman
Chief Technology Officer
Jeffrey joined Kapitus in March 2018 as Chief Risk Officer. Jeffrey has over 25 years of Risk Management experience at Citibank and GE Capital (now known as Synchrony Financial). Prior to joining Kapitus, he was Chief Credit Officer at Citibank’s US Retail Bank for Consumer and Small Business lending. Jeffrey has an MBA from Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper Business School and a BA from Franklin & Marshall College.
Josh Jones joined Kapitus in 2015 when the lending facility he owned and operated was acquired. Josh has a proven track record of successfully establishing, reorganizing, and scaling businesses within FinTech. With over 15 years of experience, he has a specialization in building brands as well as distributing near prime credit products. Josh continues to run sales and marketing for Kapitus, keep up with his workout regiment, surfs or snowboards on the weekend, enjoys a sushi dinner, and loves to spend time with his family.
Jesse is the Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Kapitus. Prior to joining Kapitus in June of 2017, he served as Counsel in the Professional Liability & Financial Crimes Section of the FDIC’s Legal Division and practiced at Williams & Connolly LLP, where he focused on complex financial services, litigation and professional liability litigation. He also served as the Judicial Law Clerk to the Honorable John M. Rogers of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He received his law degree from the Georgetown University Law Center and his undergraduate degree from Colby College.
Ella formally joined Kapitus in October of 2021 as Chief Technology Officer after working with the Kapitus technology team in a senior consultant capacity. As CTO, Ella will spearhead the build-out of next generation technology platforms at Kapitus. Prior to joining Kapitus, Ella was a Lead Consultant at Crosslake Technologies where she oversaw complex, large-scale technology initiatives across a myriad of industries, including Health Care, Financial Services, Retail, and Utilities. She has also held Chief Technology Officer roles at Jama Software, Bynder and BlackLine. Ella has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota.
Our mission is to help small business owners grow their organizations by providing tailored, transparent, and ethical financing solutions. We invest in every business owner’s story and we are dedicated to building lasting relationships to champion their goals.
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Copyright 2024 Strategic Funding Source, Inc. All rights reserved. Kapitus and the Kapitus logo are registered trademarks of Strategic Funding Source, Inc. Loans made or brokered in California are made or brokered pursuant to California Finance Lenders License No. 603-G807.