FINANCE
PR Newswire | January 10, 2024
DreamSpring, a nonprofit Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) and Small Business Administration (SBA) lender, and Woodforest National Bank® (Woodforest), a national bank with over 760 branches across 17 states, are working together to provide access to $1.5 million in debt capital to low- and moderate-income (LMI) small business entrepreneurs. The influx of lending capital from Woodforest to DreamSpring is a milestone in their shared commitment to spur community development and job creation through expanding peer networks and increasing access to capital.
"Our collaboration with Woodforest widens the path for entrepreneurs to access much-needed capital and business resources," said Anne Haines, President and CEO of DreamSpring. "With Woodforest at our side, DreamSpring continues to expand our capacity to help small business owners realize their dreams and build stronger, more resilient communities through entrepreneurship."
Daniel Galindo, Senior Vice President & Director of the CRA Program & Strategic Initiatives at Woodforest National Bank added, "Working with a strong CDFI like DreamSpring combines both organizations' financial strengths to provide access to LMI small business owners who struggle to get the funds they need to run and grow their business which is a key focus for our team."
Both financial institutions share a commitment to empowering communities through entrepreneurship. The term loan agreement will allow DreamSpring to provide microloans to small business owners and LMI entrepreneurs as they start or grow their businesses across 10 shared states in DreamSpring and Woodforest's national footprints: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, New York, South Carolina, and Texas.
The agreement between DreamSpring and Woodforest also strengthens the teams' vision to expand peer networks across their shared footprint to provide more resources for small business owners.
For instance, in South Dallas, both organizations have embraced the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's (OCC) acclaimed Dallas REACh initiative, aimed at increasing LMI access to capital. Woodforest facilitated DreamSpring's connection to the monthly Dallas REACh roundtable, bringing together banks, CDFIs, and community stakeholders and leaders. This collaboration has resulted in a greater network of support in South Dallas, enriching the local small business ecosystem.
One South Dallas-based small business owner who has felt the life-changing impact of capital is Taylor Symoné. Her small day spa business offers beauty and hair treatments, therapeutic post-operative care, massages, and facials. When she was first getting started, Taylor remembers calling about 15 financial institutions and feeling frustrated every time by the paperwork needed for a small loan, as well as rigid requirements for only helping businesses with at least two years of operational history. DreamSpring was different. Taylor has since repaid three DreamSpring loans to fuel her business growth and create even more opportunities for her family.
"I'm really big on generational wealth," says Taylor. "I like to teach my kids about being their own boss, being the star of their own show, and learning and understanding that you can create your own passageway — you just have to want to."
For 30 years, DreamSpring has developed small business training and a range of loan products to meet the needs of entrepreneurs like Taylor. Today, DreamSpring offers credit-building small business loans, lines of credit, SBA 7(a) loans, and commercial real estate loans in 27 states to level the playing field by bridging credit and knowledge gaps that hinder economic mobility.
About DreamSpring
DreamSpring is a nonprofit Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) and U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) lender dedicated to accelerating the economic inclusion and strength of underserved communities. Founded in 1994, the organization provides rapid access to capital and customized wrap-around support to the most vulnerable small business owners in 27 states, focusing on communities including people of color, women, low- to moderate-income earners, people with disabilities, and start-ups. To date, DreamSpring has issued more than 48,796 loans totaling over $538 million to small businesses that support an estimated 65,138 jobs.
About Woodforest National Bank
Celebrating over 40 years of community banking service, Woodforest National Bank has successfully stood among the strongest community banks in the nation, proudly offering outstanding customer service since 1980. Woodforest currently operates over 760 branches in 17 states across the United States and is an Outstanding CRA rated institution.
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TECHNOLOGY
Business Wire | January 12, 2024
Global compliance technology solutions and services provider Sovos announced today it has acquired North Dakota-based Aatrix Software, a leader in payroll tax forms, extending our leadership in compliance with enhanced capabilities across e-Filing for 1099 and ACA 1095 reporting and W2/payroll reporting – increasing our local, state and federal coverage. This acquisition brings together two companies with significant experience and expertise in helping small and medium-sized businesses navigate the complexity of tax and regulatory compliance.
As the regulatory landscape continues to evolve and electronic filing thresholds are lowered, it’s important that SMBs have access to the technology solutions and services they need to ensure proper and timely tax filings to maintain compliance. Together, Sovos and Aatrix will better inform users about changing mandates and provide them easy access to the tools and support they need. Between our two companies, we bring to bear extensive reach in terms of existing partnerships and configurations to work with nearly any platform or systems provider.
“The continued digitization of tax compliance affects businesses of every size, and this is especially true for SMBs,” said Kevin Akeroyd, CEO, Sovos. “Small businesses really are the backbone of the U.S. and we have made a commitment at Sovos to provide them with the technology and support they need. We believe that Aatrix shares these same principles and fits perfectly into our existing portfolio, we are excited to welcome them into the fold.”
Aatrix occupies a strong segment of the market and offers customers a deep level of form functionality as well as a flexible solution that can adapt to their various software offerings. Primarily focused on serving customers through integrations with ERP and payroll providers, Aatrix has been able to leverage its critical business functionality, embedded relationships with payroll partners, and high customer satisfaction to create a highly sticky solution. Its ‘sweet spot’ is primarily mid-sized companies with geographic scale to require multiple tax forms, however the solution has broad appeal across market segments and industries.
“Aatrix has been a leader in helping small and mid-sized businesses meet their compliance obligations for nearly four decades and we are extremely proud of the work we’ve done and the partnerships we’ve created,” said Steve Lunseth, CEO, Aatrix. “I believe that the timing is right for us to bring our solutions portfolio under the Sovos umbrella to create even stronger opportunities for our customers, partners and employees. Our combined expertise and reach will assure that any business that wants to streamline their filing process will have access to the best people and solutions on the market.”
The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Sovos is owned by Hg, the London-based specialist private equity investor focused on software and service businesses, and TA Associates. Holland & Hart LLP served as legal advisor to Sovos.
About Sovos
Sovos is a global provider of tax, compliance and trust solutions and services that enable businesses to navigate an increasingly regulated world with true confidence. Purpose-built for always-on compliance capabilities, our scalable IT-driven solutions meet the demands of an evolving and complex global regulatory landscape. Sovos’ cloud-based software platform provides an unparalleled level of integration with business applications and government compliance processes.
More than 100,000 customers in 100+ countries – including half the Fortune 500 – trust Sovos for their compliance needs. Sovos annually processes more than three billion transactions across 19,000 global tax jurisdictions. Bolstered by a robust partner program more than 400 strong, Sovos brings to bear an unrivaled global network for companies across industries and geographies. Founded in 1979, Sovos has operations across the Americas and Europe, and is owned by Hg and TA Associates.
About Aatrix
Aatrix Software is a leading provider of W2, 1099 and ACA reporting solutions servicing over 300,000 businesses. Aatrix has been developing innovative accounting software solutions since 1986. Aatrix' finance software has received numerous awards, including Software Digests highest overall rating and Home Office Computing Editors Pick. Today, the Aatrix Electronic Forms Division is one of the nation's premier payroll reporting specialists.
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TECHNOLOGY
Business Wire | January 29, 2024
Trellix, the cybersecurity company delivering the future of extended detection and response (XDR), today announced it has achieved the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Small and Medium Business Competency, recognizing the company as an AWS Partner with a unique focus on small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).
Achieving the AWS Small and Medium Business Competency differentiates Trellix as an AWS Partner, demonstrating proficiency and proven success in helping SMBs solve their business and technical problems. Trellix is equipped to handle these challenges with solutions designed around customers’ unique needs in mind, including consideration for SMB’s typical deployment models, level of IT capabilities and financing preferences, and local and industry requirements.
“Trellix is proud to achieve the AWS Small and Medium Business Competency,” said Jason Andrew, Chief Revenue Officer, Trellix. “Our team is dedicated to helping businesses of all sizes achieve their goals, and our combined offerings with AWS empower SMBs with the agility, support, and innovation needed to do so.”
AWS is enabling scalable, flexible, and cost-effective solutions from startups to global enterprises. To support the seamless integration and deployment of these solutions, the AWS Competency Program helps customers identify AWS Partners with deep industry experience and expertise.
Along with an extensive partner ecosystem, Trellix accelerates technology innovation through machine learning and automation to empower businesses to build cyber resilience and stay ahead of the evolving threat landscape. The AI-powered Trellix XDR Platform’s open architecture and broad set of native security controls integrates with over 500 third-party tools to create multi-vector, multi-vendor event correlation and context, enabling faster detection, investigation, and remediation of threats.
“We partnered with Trellix to explore new ways to automate investigations,” says Chuck Lerch, CXO Head of Cybersecurity, Cyberuptive. “In this groundbreaking work, we combined the Trellix XDR Platform’s rich data and investigative playbooks with large language models (LLMs) running on AWS to make comprehensive assessments of alerts. The results provide useful insights, demonstrating the value of focusing on security research instead of how to run an LLM at scale.”
About Trellix
Trellix is a global company redefining the future of cybersecurity and soulful work. The company’s open and native extended detection and response (XDR) platform helps organizations confronted by today’s most advanced threats gain confidence in the protection and resilience of their operations. Trellix, along with an extensive partner ecosystem, accelerates technology innovation through machine learning and automation to empower over 40,000 business and government customers with living security.
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