The Best Companies That Buy B2B Debt Portfolios in 2026

TL;DR

Selling a written-off B2B portfolio outright pays you cash now, clears the receivable off your books, and skips the 25 to 50% cut a contingency agency takes from whatever it eventually recovers (uschamber.com). The catch is access. Encore Capital buys from major banks and credit unions, and Intrum runs pan-European enterprise deals, leaving smaller commercial portfolios with no real buyer (encorecapital.com).

Delos takes a different approach — it purchases individual B2B claims rather than bulk portfolios, making it the only option accessible to businesses with a handful of unpaid invoices rather than a warehouse of charged-off paper. You get cash now per claim, or pursue litigation-backed recovery, whichever makes more sense. This guide ranks Delos, Intrum, Encore, Runci Group, and SWRecovery, with a comparison table for quick buyer-fit screening.

Why Selling Your B2B Debt Portfolio Beats Waiting on Collection

A contingency collection agency keeps your receivable on your books for the entire engagement. You hand over a written-off invoice, wait while the agency works it, and only then split whatever comes back. The US Chamber of Commerce puts agency commissions between 25% and 50% of amounts recovered, and rates climb as accounts age. Agencies usually take placements only after invoices pass 90 days past due, so you are already months into the problem before the meter even starts.

Debt purchase removes the receivable instead of chasing it. A debt buyer pays you a fraction of face value, takes legal ownership, and assumes every collection effort and outcome from there. The Chamber defines the buyer as a distinct category for exactly this reason. You get cash at closing, the account leaves your balance sheet, and you owe nothing on whatever the buyer eventually collects.

The catch is access. Most established buyers transact only at institutional scale. Encore Capital Group runs $1.77 billion in revenue and buys portfolios from major banks, credit unions, and utility providers, and its entire model points at consumer recovery, not commercial trade credit. Intrum buys across asset classes but markets pan-European coverage and lists verticals like telecom, healthcare, and government that skew consumer-facing. Neither publishes a minimum portfolio size, and the counterparties they name signal that a SaaS company with $400,000 in charged-off B2B invoices is not the seller they want.

That leaves a gap for the mid-market operator. You have a real portfolio, it is too small for Encore or Intrum, and a contingency agency wants a third of any recovery while the debt sits on your books indefinitely. The options that actually fit B2B portfolios in 2026 are narrower than the broader debt-buying market suggests, and the differences between them decide whether you get clean cash or another quarter of waiting.

The five companies below sort out who buys, who brokers, who only collects, and which one reaches portfolios the enterprise buyers turn away.

The Best Companies That Buy B2B Debt Portfolios in 2026

We evaluated five companies across four criteria that decide whether a buyer can actually take your portfolio off the books. Each one is judged on its purchase model, its fit for commercial B2B receivables, the portfolio size it will accept, and whether it offers a litigation path alongside a sale. The list runs in order of accessibility and B2B relevance for SaaS companies, fintechs, and PE-owned operators, so the buyers that mid-market sellers can actually reach sit at the top.

1. Delos

Delos is the only company on this list that purchases individual B2B claims outright — not bulk portfolios — and lets you choose what happens to each one. You can sell a claim for immediate cash and clear the receivable from your books, or run a litigation-backed recovery when the odds favor collecting the full balance. That choice is made per claim, not locked in across a whole book of accounts.

This matters because every other buyer on this list requires you to package and sell a portfolio. Encore and Intrum acquire from major banks and pan-European originators. Runci brokers portfolio sales with a $1M+ face value floor. If you have five unpaid invoices from three different debtors, none of them will engage. Delos will.

Best for: SaaS, fintech, and PE-owned businesses with individual written-off commercial invoices they want off the books immediately.

Pros

• Purchases individual B2B claims outright — no minimum portfolio size, no bundling requirement. One invoice qualifies.
• The dual-path model hands you the decision per claim. Sell for immediate cash, or pursue litigation-backed recovery where the upside justifies it.
• Payment lands at closing on a claim purchase, and the receivable leaves your balance sheet entirely. The US Chamber draws the same line between a debt buyer who becomes the legal owner of the debt and an agency that only collects on your behalf.
• No contingency split. A collection agency keeps 25 to 50 percent of whatever it recovers, per the same US Chamber data.
• Underwriting is built for commercial accounts, not borrowed from a consumer-debt playbook. Commercial B2B collections run under state contract law and the UCC rather than the FDCPA, and Delos prices to those rules.
• The litigation path preserves your upside. When a debtor is solvent and the claim is strong, full recovery can beat a discounted sale, and Delos lets you take that route instead.

Cons

• Delos is a newer entrant than Encore or Intrum and runs a smaller global footprint. If you need a buyer with operations across eight countries, the incumbents have more reach.
• The purchase price comes in at cents on the dollar and reflects portfolio risk, the same as any buyer. Older accounts and weaker debtor credit pull the offer down. Recovery probability drops sharply beyond 180 days past due, and pricing follows that curve.

Pricing: Contact Delos for a claim-specific offer. The price is set by invoice age, outstanding balance, and debtor creditworthiness — a recent invoice against a solvent debtor commands more than a two-year-old claim with no paper trail. You get a concrete number to weigh against the slow drip of contingency recovery.

2. Intrum

Intrum is the largest pure debt buyer most European enterprises will encounter, and its portfolio investment arm purchases receivables across every asset class. The company buys non-performing loans, performing loans, overdue invoices, and real estate-backed assets from sellers in financial services, telecom, utilities, healthcare, and government. If you run a utility or a bank offloading high-volume receivables across Europe, Intrum is a serious counterparty.

The standout feature is lifecycle flexibility. Intrum buys at every stage of the credit cycle, from performing accounts to early arrears to written-off balances. Most buyers only want charged-off paper, so a seller wanting to move performing or early-stage accounts has fewer realistic options. Intrum takes all of it.

Forward flow agreements add another layer for high-volume originators. You agree to sell accounts on a recurring basis once they hit a defined internal stage, which converts a messy charge-off process into predictable income. Intrum frames the core economics plainly. The cost of chasing a non-paying customer often exceeds the account balance itself, so selling clears the cost and the receivable in one move. Structured deals can also pair the purchase with ongoing collection work when that suits the seller.

Where Intrum falls short for B2B sellers

The verticals Intrum lists tell you who it actually serves. Financial services, telecom, and utilities skew heavily toward consumer-facing, high-volume receivables, and the company publishes no B2B-specific case studies or commercial receivables data. Intrum says it handles "complex B2B contracts," but nothing on the page demonstrates commercial deal volume or commercial underwriting depth.

Portfolio size is the bigger barrier. Intrum discloses no minimum portfolio size, no minimum account count, and no face-value floor. The absence cuts both ways. The industries it courts signal enterprise-scale counterparties, so a SaaS company with a few hundred thousand dollars in written-off invoices has no published path to a deal.

Geography narrows the fit further. Intrum operates with pan-European coverage and directs visitors to country-specific local sites. No U.S. or non-European market coverage appears anywhere in its debt purchase materials, which rules it out for American B2B sellers.

Pricing: Intrum buys at a percentage of face value set by a due diligence review of account age, balances, prior collections, and debtor creditworthiness. No ranges or example discount rates are published.

3. Encore Capital Group

Encore Capital Group is the largest debt buyer on this list and the least relevant to a B2B seller. The company trades on NASDAQ under ECPG, employs 7,350 people, and reported $1.77 billion in global revenue in 2025 (encorecapital.com). For 25 years it has bought receivable portfolios from major banks, credit unions, and utility providers. Read that seller list closely. Every named counterparty is a large consumer-lending institution.

Best for: Major banks, credit unions, and utility providers offloading large consumer receivable portfolios.

Pros

Encore collected $2.6 billion across its global operation in 2025, a scale no competitor in this category approaches (encorecapital.com). The company runs purchasing and servicing operations in 8 countries spanning North America, Europe, Asia, and Latin America. Few buyers can match 25 years of dedicated portfolio acquisition infrastructure and the analytics that come with it.

Cons

The entire business points at consumer debt. Encore states its mission as creating pathways to consumer financial recovery, and its public materials reference consumers rather than commercial debtors. There is no disclosed B2B or commercial receivables capability anywhere on the source page (encorecapital.com). The named seller types signal institutional-scale minimums, so a SaaS company with a few hundred thousand dollars in written-off invoices has no entry point. Encore publishes no pricing, runs no seller portal, and offers no mid-market access pathway.

If you operate a mid-market business with commercial receivables, Encore is the wrong door. Its size works against you here, because the machine is built to ingest large consumer portfolios from regulated lenders, not one-off B2B charge-offs. A buyer like Delos underwrites commercial accounts directly and accepts portfolios far below Encore's implied floor.

Pricing: Not publicly disclosed. The site is investor- and consumer-facing, with no rates, minimums, or seller acquisition portal visible. Counterparties are institutional by implication only (encorecapital.com).

4. Runci Group

Runci Group brokers debt sales rather than buying portfolios itself, which changes what you actually get. Founded in 2005, the firm represents sellers on an exclusive basis and markets your receivables to its network of state, regional, and national debt purchasers (runcigroup.com). You're hiring a matchmaker, not selling to a balance-sheet buyer.

The track record is real. Runci has closed more than 350 transactions covering over 10 million accounts since 2005. Their published deal list runs from $1.0M to $62.3M in face value across both consumer and commercial paper.

Best for: Sellers who need brokered access to legal-focused attorney buyers, especially portfolios carrying judgment-stage or litigation-ready accounts.

Pros

Runci handles commercial paper alongside consumer debt, including small business loans, equipment leases, and landlord/tenant receivables. Recent commercial deals include $62.3M in charged-off equipment leases and $4.5M in small business loans and lines of credit. Their stated edge is access to attorney buyers who want judgment-stage assets, which matters if your accounts have already cleared litigation.

Cons

The brokerage model inserts an intermediary between you and the buyer, so you pay a broker fee on top of accepting whatever offer the network returns. That adds cost and time compared with selling direct. Runci publishes no minimum portfolio size, but the smallest completed transaction on record is $1.0M face value, which signals where their network operates. Smaller B2B portfolios likely won't attract a bid through this channel.

Pricing is opaque. Runci publishes no cents-on-the-dollar figures, no purchase price ranges, and no broker fee schedule (runcigroup.com). You learn what your portfolio is worth only after engaging.

Pricing

Not disclosed. Runci publishes neither purchase price ranges nor its brokerage fee structure, so expect to negotiate both the buyer's offer and the broker's cut after you sign an exclusive engagement (runcigroup.com).

5. SWRecovery (Southwest Recovery Services)

Southwest Recovery Services is a contingency-fee collection agency, not a debt buyer, which makes it the right pick only if you'd rather keep ownership and pay a percentage on what gets recovered. The company has operated for more than 20 years out of Addison, Texas, with 12 regional offices across seven states. SWRecovery collects commercial debt in all 50 states and treats B2B work as its core business.

Best for: Businesses that want no-upfront-fee recovery and don't need immediate balance sheet relief.

Pros

You pay nothing until SWRecovery collects. The agency charges no setup fees, no monthly retainers, and no placement costs, stating in its FAQ that it only earns a percentage of what it successfully recovers (swrecovery.com). Onboarding runs 24 to 48 hours, and fresh commercial accounts under 90 days past due typically resolve in 30 to 60 days.

Cons

SWRecovery does not buy debt portfolios at any size, so your receivable stays on the books until the agency collects or you write it off. Contingency rates climb with account age and shrink with balance, meaning older invoices and small claims cost you the most. You also wait. The cash arrives only after recovery, not at closing.

Pricing

SWRecovery publishes no rate. The contingency percentage varies by account age, balance, and type, and you request a quote to see your number (swrecovery.com). Industry benchmarks put mid-range commercial debts at roughly 20 to 25 percent, with smaller and older accounts pushing higher (uschamber.com). If you want certainty and a clean balance sheet instead, a direct purchase makes more sense.

Comparison: Companies That Buy B2B Debt Portfolios

Use this table to screen each option against the five factors that decide buyer fit for a written-off B2B portfolio.

Two patterns stand out. Encore and Intrum buy outright but gate access behind institutional scale, and neither publishes B2B pricing or a mid-market seller path. Delos is the only entrant that pairs immediate cash purchase with accessible minimums, a genuine B2B focus, and a litigation route when recovery probability stays high.

Get a portfolio offer from Delos.

Why Delos Leads for Mid-Market B2B Debt Sale

Encore buys from major banks, credit unions, and utility providers, which leaves a written-off SaaS receivable with nowhere to go. Intrum runs pan-European and skews toward consumer-heavy verticals like telecom and utilities, with no disclosed path for a mid-market U.S. seller. Runci connects you to buyers but inserts a broker between you and the cash. SWRecovery never buys at all and works on contingency.

Delos purchases individual B2B claims directly — no portfolio bundling, no minimum account count, no institutional relationship required. You receive cash at closing and the receivable leaves your books, with no contingency split eating into the recovery.

The dual-path model sets Delos apart structurally. You decide, per claim, whether to sell for immediate cash or hand the file to a litigation-backed recovery track. Claims with strong recovery odds can pursue full value through litigation. Weaker ones convert to cash now. You are not locked into one approach across all your invoices.

That flexibility matters most when you are cleaning up written-off AR under a deadline. A SaaS finance lead, a fintech operator, or a PE-owned business closing the books gets certainty on the soft claims and upside on the strong ones — without waiting months for a contingency agency to deliver.

How We Evaluated Companies That Buy Debt Portfolios

Seven criteria separated a real debt buyer from a broker or an agency wearing the same label. We started with purchase model, ranking true balance-sheet buyers above brokers who connect you to third parties and above contingency agencies that never take ownership. B2B commercial focus came next, so consumer-debt buyers like Encore dropped down the list regardless of their scale.

Portfolio size accessibility carried heavy weight. A buyer that only touches institutional volume does nothing for a SaaS company with a six-figure write-off, so we favored anyone reachable at mid-market scale.

Payment certainty distinguished immediate cash at closing from contingency splits and brokered timelines that stretch over months. Litigation optionality measured whether a recovery path sits alongside the sale option, since a fixed price isn't always the best outcome per account.

Pricing transparency rewarded published ranges over opaque due-diligence-only quotes. Geographic coverage weighted U.S. B2B relevance, which pushed pan-European operators down for American sellers. Each company scored against all seven, then we ordered the list by accessibility and commercial fit.

FAQs

What does it mean to sell a debt portfolio?

Selling a debt portfolio means a debt buyer pays you upfront for your unpaid accounts at a fraction of their face value. You receive immediate cash and the receivable leaves your books entirely. Most buyers require you to bundle accounts into a portfolio first. Delos is different — it purchases individual B2B claims, so you don't need a minimum number of invoices to get an offer.

What is the difference between a debt buyer and a collection agency?

A debt buyer purchases your accounts outright and becomes their legal owner. A collection agency works on your behalf and keeps 25 to 50 percent of whatever it recovers. Delos offers both paths depending on the characteristics of your portfolio.

How do companies that buy debt determine purchase price?

Buyers price each portfolio on account age, balance size, debtor creditworthiness, and any collections already made. Older and smaller accounts fetch a lower percentage of face value. Delos underwrites B2B-specific risk factors when it builds your offer.

Is Delos better than Intrum for B2B debt sale?

Intrum focuses on pan-European enterprise sellers in consumer-heavy verticals like telecom and utilities. It publishes no access path for mid-market U.S. B2B portfolios. Delos is built specifically for commercial receivables at a scale mid-market sellers can use.

Can I sell unpaid invoices if my portfolio is under $1 million?

Encore and Intrum imply institutional minimums, and Runci Group's smallest completed deal sits around $1 million face value. Most buyers exclude sub-enterprise portfolios outright. Delos sidesteps the portfolio requirement entirely — it purchases individual claims, so a single unpaid invoice qualifies.

How quickly do I receive cash when I sell a debt portfolio?

Contingency agencies pay nothing until they recover, which can stretch across months. Debt purchase pays you at closing once due diligence completes. Delos shares its due diligence timeline on request.

What is a forward flow agreement and do I need one?

A forward flow agreement commits you to sell accounts on an ongoing basis once they hit a defined stage. High-volume originators with recurring charge-offs benefit most. Delos and Intrum both offer structured purchase arrangements.

What are the best alternatives to Encore Capital for selling commercial debt?

Encore serves major banks and is not accessible to mid-market B2B sellers. Runci Group brokers access but adds intermediary cost and delay. Delos is the direct-purchase alternative for B2B portfolios of accessible size.