Small-business lender gets cash infusion

Ed Harycki, founder and CEO of Swift Financial, sits in the space in the Silverside-Carr Executive Center that will become offices to accommodate the expansion of the financial services company.

The News Journal, February 26, 2008 - A financial services startup formed by ex-MBNA executives scored a second round of venture capital funding this month, a sign that entrepreneurial momentum in Delaware may be building and a shake-up in financial services may be on the horizon.

Swift Financial, a Wilmington company announced Feb. 21 it had secured $20 million from investors including Sutter Hill Ventures of Palo Alto, Calif.; Village Ventures of Williamstown, Mass.; Permit Capital LLC of West Conshohocken, Pa.; and Marshall & Ilsley Corp. of Milwaukee.

The capital will help the company expand its operations and grow its business, said Ed Harycki, Swift Financial's founder and CEO.

The credit crunch that has been crippling some of the nation's biggest banks is actually helping the startup, because small-business owners in need of funding are having trouble getting it from larger banks, Harycki said.

"We're seeing a lot more volume from small businesses who are struggling to get loans from institutions they've been with for a while," Harycki said. "Some of the large lenders, the household names, are pulling back and we're seeing the benefit of that."

Swift Financial is poised to take advantage of the problems in the financial sector because of a solid business model and expert management team, said Matt Harris, managing general partner at Village Ventures, one of their investors.

"The U.S. banking industry is in for a very difficult 12 to 18 months, and ... we think Swift has a great opportunity to take advantage of the choppiness in the market to take market share," Harris said. "This is when you want to be a new competitor -- when everybody in the market is feeling a lot of pain."

Swift Financial's management team is also part of what attracted Village Ventures, which focuses on innovative financial services companies, he said.

"We think [Swift] has some of the best people in America's banking industry," Harris said.






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