Happy Sunday, friends! I’ve been sharing news coming from ClearCo and Pipe. Wayflyer, the Irish RBF unicorn focused on ecommerce, is experiencing similar challenges. As these players pull back, the holes they leave in the market create opportunity. It doesn’t always take long for entrants to emerge and announce themselves, as Paperstack did recently. 

This is interesting to me. See, many of the VCs who typically fund companies like this are currently skittish about new alternative capital platforms because of the high-profile turmoil they’ve seen at Clear, Pipe, and Wayflyer. So it’s a counterintuitive time to make a new move into this market, and for VCs to commit to it. I regard this as a positive signal in the market: VCs and lenders are still here, still funding. 

Now, to be clear, Paperstack started doing RBF in January 2022, so this isn’t exactly brand new for them, but that they raised additional capital for their strategy confirms that investors continue to see the alternative capital opportunity as attractive. 

So, is this a good time to enter the alternative capital market? Like Paperstack, I believe this is a great time to enter the space…if you have the stomach for macroeconomic uncertainty, the capital to provide, investors who will support you in a tough environment, and the underwriting chops necessary in a weird and unpredictable time. It’s a contrarian, counterintuitive move, and potentially one that creates extraordinary value.