INNOVATORS Gold Award - New Orleans City Business
INNOVATORS Gold Award - New Orleans City Business
INNOVATORS Gold Award - New Orleans City Business
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BRONZE AWARD<br />
The Receivables Exchange<br />
Key innovation: an online capital market for buying,<br />
selling and trading commercial receivables for private<br />
companies<br />
Where they’re based: <strong>New</strong> <strong>Orleans</strong><br />
Top executive: Justin Brownhill, CEO and co-founder;<br />
Nic Perkin, president and co-founder<br />
Year introduced: 2008<br />
PHOTO BY FRANK AYMAMI<br />
JUSTIN BROWNHILL AND Nic Perkin have taken huge<br />
steps toward putting the Crescent <strong>City</strong> on the same financial<br />
map as Chicago and <strong>New</strong> York.<br />
With the creation of The Receivables Exchange, the two<br />
men opened a marketplace where small- and medium-sized<br />
businesses can gain access to working capital by buying, selling<br />
and trading assets.<br />
“The system works much like the <strong>New</strong> York Stock<br />
Exchange, but for privately held entities,” said Receivables<br />
Exchange president Perkin. “The sellers are small companies<br />
that sell their assets online and the buyers are hedge<br />
funds and family offices looking at receivables as equity.”<br />
Where Perkin envisioned the idea of modernizing<br />
accounts receivable, Brownhill, co-founder and CEO, conceptualized<br />
the exchange. Brownhill drew from his experience<br />
in exchange strategy and trading technology to structure<br />
a marketplace where accounts receivable could be funded<br />
and traded like other assets on an exchange.<br />
Perkin said the exchange is one-of-a-kind in that it is the<br />
only marketplace that is completely electronic — every transaction<br />
is performed online.<br />
“It allows quick access to working capital,” Perkin said.<br />
“It is also very diverse in that it is not ‘all or none.’ Clients can<br />
buy a portion of a company’s receivables and not have to put<br />
all their money in one place.”<br />
The Receivables Exchange runs on the same technology<br />
that powers the <strong>New</strong> York Stock Exchange’s electronic<br />
bond trading system. The technology and security measures<br />
backing the exchange’s engine and Web site provide safeguards<br />
that allow for the secure electronic transfer of corporate<br />
and account information for trading receivables.<br />
Perkin said he was drawn to the <strong>New</strong> <strong>Orleans</strong> market<br />
after living in the city for four years while he pursued a bachelor’s<br />
degree from Tulane University.<br />
“I always dreamed of coming back to the city, but I had to<br />
find the right opportunity,” Perkin said. “We spent a lot of<br />
time looking for a major city to house the exchange and as<br />
we dug deeper we determined that <strong>New</strong> <strong>Orleans</strong>, with its<br />
low cost of living and connection to institutions, was a great<br />
fit for us. It was a location outside of normal financial hubs.<br />
We have had great luck so far.”•<br />
— Robin Shannon<br />
Nic Perkin, president and co-founder of The Receivables Exchange, has created a receivables system with CEO and co-founder Justin<br />
Brownhill that allows businesses to place their accounts receivable on an online trading block.<br />
<strong>New</strong> <strong>Orleans</strong> <strong>City</strong><strong>Business</strong> 9A