specialty-finance
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Kiran Kapur Built a Lender for the Deals That Need a Second Look
After decades inside large finance companies, Kiran Kapur made his first entrepreneurial bet on a neglected corner of the middle market. Ten years later, 36th Street Capital shows what can happen when a lender treats complexity as work to be understood, not a reason to walk away.
RapidFunds Turned the Awkward Wait After a Settlement Into a $336 Million Niche
Plaintiffs' lawyers can win a settlement and still wait months to get paid. RapidFunds built a business around that strange gap - buying earned-but-delayed legal fees so law firms can make payroll, fund the next case and keep moving.
Tacora Capital Funds the Balance Sheet Behind the App
The Austin lender looks past the software pitch and into the pile of loans, contracts and policies underneath it. That focus has helped Tacora turn a quiet corner of venture finance into a roughly $1.4 billion platform.
From the Grocery Aisle to the Cap Table
Justin Dye grew Albertsons by tens of billions. Now his Boca Raton firm buys seafood distributors, RV power tech and cannabis lenders - and runs each one like an operator, not a spreadsheet.
The $99 Billion Bank That Wants Money to Stop Keeping Office Hours
Western Alliance built a national commercial bank out of specialist desks, local judgment and a willingness to learn odd corners of the economy. Its newest bet is that regulated dollars should move at the speed of the businesses using them.
JG Wentworth
It turned a court-ordered payment schedule into a pop-culture jingle. Three decades and two bankruptcies later, JG Wentworth is still betting that Americans would rather have their money now.
Customers Bank
Customers Bank grew from a troubled $200 million community lender into a nearly $26 billion national bank by choosing specialists over branches. Now it is testing whether real-time payments and AI can make relationship banking move at software speed.
Wintrust Financial Corporation
Wintrust built a $74.7 billion banking group by keeping the storefront feel of a neighborhood lender. Its real trick is the machinery behind the counter - 16 charters, national specialty finance and a balance sheet that can compete with much larger banks.
Briggs Elwell
Briggs Elwell is the co-founder and CEO of RLTYco, a New York-based specialty finance and services firm built for independent (1099) real estate agents. After more than 15 years in real estate - from sales and asset management at The Related Companies to building the Northeast business for OPTIMAR International - he co-founded RLTYco in 2021 with attorney Daniel Kennedy. The company started by advancing agents their commissions within 24 hours and has grown into a one-stop platform spanning commission funding, tax and financial tools, legal formation, healthcare, and rewards. In January 2025 RLTYco raised a $20 million Series A led by Altriarch and acquired the rewards technology of Zurp.
Heron Data
Heron Data builds AI software that automates document-heavy workflows in financial services - reading, extracting, enriching and routing the messy bank statements, tax forms, applications and claims that pile up in lending, equipment finance and insurance. Founded in 2020 and operating as Open Credit Technologies, Inc., the company turns unstructured paperwork into structured data and syncs it directly into customers' CRMs. It serves 150+ fintechs, financiers and insurers, processes hundreds of thousands of documents weekly, and raised a $16M Series A led by Insight Partners in July 2025.
Johannes Jaeckle
Johannes Jaeckle is the co-founder and CEO of Heron Data, a New York fintech that uses large language models to automate document-heavy workflows in financial services. Heron reads emails, classifies submissions, extracts data, and syncs it into CRMs and loan platforms for more than 150 customers - from small lenders to FDIC-insured banks - processing over 350,000 documents a week. Jaeckle started building with LLMs in 2020, two years before ChatGPT went public, after a fintech operating career that included running the remittance company Taptap Send and serving as UK Managing Director of Segovia Technology. In July 2025 Heron raised a $16.6M Series A led by Insight Partners.