RapidAdvance, a quickly emerging player in the merchant cash advance industry, announced in August that Barry Davis, formerly a principal at First Annapolis Consulting, joined the company as its head of business development.
    Barry comes to RapidAdvance with nine years of merchant acquiring and transaction processing experience while working at First Annapolis. During his time in consulting, he has worked with the majority of the top fifty acquirers and ISOs along with most transaction processors, the Card Associations, and numerous vendors that serve the industry. His consulting work for these clients has been extensive and includes general business planning, sales strategy development, risk management and back-office audits, merger and acquisition services, company/merchant portfolio valuations, market research, and litigation support.
    During the past eighteen months, Barry has worked with RapidAdvance in helping the owners and management team better understand the merchant acquiring and cash advance industries. Inspired by the significant opportunity, Barry helped RapidAdvance develop its strategy as the company began operations in 2005. “From inception, I was very impressed with the management team at RapidAdvance, their professionalism, integrity, financial wherewithal and access to capital, along with their disciplined approach to building a company and developing a strategy that differentiates them from the competition,” says Davis.
    “Barry is a tremendous addition to the RapidAdvance team,” states Jeremy Brown, President and COO of RapidAdvance. “Having worked with Barry personally I know that he will deepen our relationships within the acquiring community and add strategic insight into our growth plans.”
    Prior to entering the merchant acquiring industry, Barry served ten years of active duty in the U.S. Navy flying F-14 Tomcat fighter jets, serving in Desert Storm, and teaching midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. After leaving active duty, he earned his MBA degree from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Business School. With some basic training from his brother Chris, a First Data employee at the time, Barry interviewed with First Annapolis Consulting, and the rest is history.
    Since joining RapidAdvance, Barry has been busy maintaining the acquirer and ISO relationships that he established while at First Annapolis and helping them understand the value proposition that RapidAdvance brings to the table. Says Davis, “Since the inception of RapidAdvance, the focus has been on serving the acquirers and sponsors of ISO programs. Our target is not the independent contractors who often times have non-exclusive relationships with multiple acquirers. We feel that we can avoid a lot of channel conflict working directly with acquirers and registered ISOs that are higher up in the “food chain.” Ultimately we believe the value proposition for the ISO/Acquirer is for the cash advance company to be “processor neutral,” such that any merchant that wants our product can stay on its current processing platform and not worry about a terminal and back-end conversion which can prove to be a frustrating experience for the merchant. Finally, we have built a back-office that is focused on high-level service to acquirers, ISOs, and their merchant customers.”
    In pursuing its processor-neutral strategy, RapidAdvance is reaching out to all processors to put in place the split-funding functionality that helps to automate the daily settlement associated with the product.
    Commenting on his new position, Davis says, “RapidAdvance has partnered with a number of the industry’s key players and the upside for the company is extremely high as we build more key relationships. The merchant market for this product is still relatively untouched and we plan to obtain a significant market share quickly. I look forward to my new role and contributing to the company’s continued rapid growth and success.”

About RapidAdvance

    RapidAdvance is a Bethesda, Maryland based company that provides working capital to small to medium sized merchants. The company provides its merchant financing based on the merchants’ future credit card receivables. For more information about RapidAdvance and its merchant cash advance product and processing solutions, contact Barry Davis, 240-514-2000 ext. 121 or e-mail bdavis@rapidadvance.com. Visit RapidAdvance’s web site at www.rapidadvance.com.