insights
Which companies buy small B2B debt portfolios under $250k
- Delos AI is the top pick for a documented commercial claim under $250k. It buys individual invoices outright, requires no bundling or minimum, and closes in days at roughly 80% of face value.
TL;DR
- Delos AI is the top pick for a documented commercial claim under $250k. It buys individual invoices outright, requires no bundling or minimum, and closes in days at roughly 80% of face value.
- Encore Capital Group and Intrum publish no minimum, but their bank, utility, and telecom counterparties signal institutional-scale floors that exclude small B2B books.
- Runci Group brokers deals starting at $1.0M face value, so it won't bid on a sub-$250k portfolio.
- Contingency agencies like Southwest Recovery Services set no purchase minimum and onboard in 24 to 48 hours, but pay only after recovery and take 25% to 50% in commission.
- Debt marketplaces and claims-trading platforms fit commercial real estate, C&I, and Chapter 11 scenarios, not ordinary past-due invoices.
Why sub-$250k B2B portfolios are hard to sell
A seller with a few hundred thousand dollars in written-off commercial invoices falls into a gap that the debt-buying market never designed for. Institutional buyers like Encore Capital Group and Intrum acquire in bulk from major banks, credit unions, utility providers, and pan-European telecoms. Neither publishes a minimum portfolio size, but their named counterparties signal institutional-scale floors that a small B2B book cannot reach (Delos: Best B2B Debt Portfolio Buyers 2026).
The broker route sits above your deal size, not beside it. Runci Group has brokered more than 350 transactions since 2005, and its smallest recorded deal is $1.0M in face value, which puts the practical floor well above $250k (Delos: Best B2B Debt Portfolio Buyers 2026). A broker earns on transaction size, so a sub-$250k book rarely attracts a bid worth arranging.
None of these firms are doing anything wrong. Their economics reward volume, and a handful of unpaid commercial invoices does not produce enough recovery value to justify institutional underwriting. That leaves small B2B sellers too small for a portfolio sale and too lightly documented for a bank-grade acquisition.
The rest of this list is organized by buyer type so you can self-select. You will find the single-claim buyer that takes one invoice, the institutional portfolio buyers that illustrate the gap, the broker route that needs bundling, and the contingency agencies that collect without buying. Match your situation to the type before comparing individual names.
How to evaluate a buyer for a small B2B portfolio
Four criteria decide whether a buyer actually fits a sub-$250k book, and they drive the rankings below.
- Minimum size and single-claim acceptance. Ask whether the buyer takes one invoice outright or requires you to bundle into a portfolio. Most institutional buyers need scale you can't reach.
- Speed to cash. A buyer that closes in days pays you now. A contingency agency pays only after it recovers, which can take months.
- Documentation and age. Buyers price on whether the invoice is genuine, documented, and enforceable. Recovery probability drops sharply past 180 days, and pricing follows that curve.
- Pricing structure. An outright purchase pays a percentage of face value at closing, near 80% for a current, undisputed claim. A contingency agency takes 25% to 50% of whatever it collects.
Rank each buyer against these four, and the field sorts itself quickly.
Delos AI
Delos AI buys individual B2B claims outright, with no bundling requirement and no minimum portfolio size. One documented invoice qualifies, which makes us the rare buyer built for a seller whose written-off book sits well under $250k. Delos AI is the only buyer in this category that purchases single claims rather than bulk portfolios (Delos).
Delos automates the entire litigation stack, including small claims and lien matters that used to cost more in legal fees than they could ever recover. That automation changes the math. A $12,000 unpaid invoice becomes worth pursuing through court, where a traditional firm would decline it because the billable hours exceed the claim.
Delos offers two paths and decides between them per claim. You can take an immediate cash sale at roughly 80% of face value on a current, documented commercial invoice (Delos). Or you can pursue litigation-backed recovery, where Delos carries the case through court and shares the outcome. The choice happens invoice by invoice, so a seller with a handful of past-due accounts can sell some and litigate others.
Qualification runs on commercial law, not consumer collection rules. Because these are trade claims between operating businesses, Delos underwrites them under state contract law and the UCC rather than the FDCPA that governs consumer debt (Delos). Pricing depends on the invoice being genuine, documented, and enforceable, and recovery probability drops sharply past 180 days, so current claims price highest. Years-old distressed paper and defaulted consumer accounts fall outside what Delos buys.
Delos fits SaaS, fintech, and PE-owned businesses that have written off commercial invoices they can still document. Those companies rarely carry enough past-due volume to reach the $1M portfolio floor a broker needs, yet each invoice is clean, recent, and enforceable. The practical payoff is speed. Delos closes in days rather than the multi-week underwriting institutional buyers run (Delos). For a seller who has already written the balance off, days-not-weeks turns a dead receivable into cash before quarter close.
Encore Capital Group
Encore Capital Group shows what an institutional debt buyer looks like at full scale, and that scale is exactly why a sub-$250k B2B seller has no path in. Encore reports 7,350 employees, $1.77 billion in global revenue for 2025, and $2.6 billion collected across 8 countries. The CFPB states that Encore and its subsidiaries have purchased rights to collect over $200 billion in defaulted consumer debts on credit cards and phone bills. A machine built to move numbers like those has no interest in a $40,000 stack of unpaid commercial invoices.
The mismatch is structural. Encore buys consumer debt in bulk, priced against the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act framework that governs credit-card and utility accounts. Your written-off B2B invoices sit under state contract law and the UCC, a different legal regime that Encore's consumer-focused underwriting does not touch.
Speed rules it out as well. Encore's underwriting runs on multi-week institutional timelines suited to large portfolio purchases, not the days-not-weeks close a small commercial seller needs. Treat Encore as a benchmark for why the top of the market ignores small books, then look to buyers built for single commercial claims.
Intrum
Intrum plays the same institutional role in Europe that Encore plays in the U.S., which makes it a poor match for a U.S. seller with a sub-$250k B2B book. Intrum buys across asset classes, including non-performing loans, overdue invoices, and real estate-backed assets, from financial services, telecom, utility, healthcare, and government sellers (Delos). Those counterparties signal a scale of receivable that a small commercial seller will not reach.
Intrum also structures much of its buying through forward-flow agreements, where a large seller commits a recurring stream of receivables rather than a one-off book. Intrum publishes no U.S. coverage, no minimum portfolio size, and no B2B-specific pricing, so a small American seller has no clear entry point and no way to price a deal. If you hold a single documented invoice or a handful of small claims, Intrum's model gives you nothing to act on, and its European focus rules it out entirely.
Runci Group (broker)
Runci Group brokers debt sales rather than buying paper directly, and its deal history rules it out for a sub-$250k book. The firm has brokered over 350 transactions and 10 million-plus accounts since 2005, with deal sizes running from $1.0 million to $62.3 million in face value. The smallest recorded transaction, $1.0 million, sets a practical floor roughly four times the ceiling this article addresses (Best B2B Debt Portfolio Buyers 2026).
Runci handles both consumer and commercial paper, including equipment leases and small business loans, so the mismatch is not about asset type. A broker earns its fee by matching a large, sellable book with institutional purchasers, and a single invoice or a handful of written-off commercial claims gives it nothing to place. If you can aggregate well above $250k, either your own receivables or a pooled sale with other creditors, a broker route becomes worth exploring. Below that threshold, you need a buyer that accepts individual claims, not an intermediary that assembles portfolios for institutional buyers.
Contingency collection agencies (e.g., Southwest Recovery Services)
Contingency agencies work best when you want recovery help without selling the claim, so they never pay you upfront. Southwest Recovery Services, a Texas-based agency with 12 offices across seven states, illustrates the model. It charges no setup fees, onboards accounts in 24 to 48 hours, and often resolves accounts under 90 days past due within 30 to 60 days (Delos: Best B2B Debt Portfolio Buyers 2026).
Because the agency never buys the debt, it imposes no portfolio minimum. You keep the claim, and the agency earns a commission only after it recovers. Contingency rates run 25% to 50% of amounts collected, and older accounts push you toward the top of that range as recovery odds fall.
That structure suits a seller who can wait for payment and wants no upfront cash. It differs sharply from Delos AI, which buys the claim outright and pays you in days. Choose a contingency agency when you would rather keep the claim and share the recovery, and choose an outright buyer when you need cash now.
Debt marketplaces and claims-trading platforms
Debt marketplaces and claims-trading platforms handle loan sales and distressed institutional paper, not ordinary past-due B2B invoices. Deal flow on these platforms concentrates in commercial real estate, C&I lending, and large institutional loans, with individual trades running from hundreds of thousands to tens of millions of dollars (Delos). A sub-$250k invoice book sits far below the size these venues clear.
Claims trading works differently and only becomes available once a debtor files Chapter 11. At that point a creditor can sell its bankruptcy claim to a distressed-debt investor, but the mechanism depends on an active bankruptcy case rather than a routine unpaid invoice. If your debtor is solvent and simply hasn't paid, no claims-trading market exists for you. These platforms serve a different problem than the small commercial seller faces.
Comparison table: minimums, speed, documentation, and fit
Use this table to match your book size and cash timeline to the right buyer before reading the individual entries above.
| Buyer/Type | Minimum size | Speed to cash | Documentation needed | Pricing model | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delos AI | One invoice, no minimum | Days | Genuine, documented, enforceable commercial claim | Outright purchase (~80% of face) or litigation-backed recovery | Sub-$250k single commercial claims from SaaS, fintech, and PE-owned sellers |
| Encore Capital Group | Institutional-scale portfolios | Multi-week underwriting | Consumer account documentation | Bulk purchase (~8.7% of face, consumer) | Banks and utilities selling large consumer books |
| Intrum | Institutional-scale portfolios | Multi-week underwriting | Institutional originator documentation | Bulk purchase, forward-flow agreements | European financial, telecom, and government sellers |
| Runci Group (broker) | $1.0M face value | Brokered, varies | Portfolio-level documentation | Brokerage fee, no published schedule | Sellers bundling well above $250k |
| Contingency agencies (e.g., Southwest Recovery Services) | No purchase minimum | Onboarding 24–48 hours, recovery in 30–60 days | Account and balance records | 25%–50% of amounts recovered | Sellers who want recovery help without selling the claim |
| Debt marketplaces / claims trading | Hundreds of thousands to tens of millions | Institutional timelines | Loan or Chapter 11 claim documentation | No published pricing | Commercial real estate, C&I, and bankruptcy claims |
Which buyer type fits your situation
Two questions decide which buyer fits: whether you have a documented, current commercial claim, and whether you need cash now or can wait for recovery.
For a single documented commercial invoice under $250k, Delos AI is the default. It buys the claim outright at roughly 80% of face value and closes in days, without asking you to bundle it into a larger portfolio. You can also elect litigation-backed recovery per claim when the numbers favor pursuing it.
If you want recovery help but don't want to sell, a contingency agency like Southwest Recovery Services fits. You pay nothing upfront and hand over 25% to 50% of whatever comes in, so choose this path when timing matters less than avoiding a discount today.
Skip the institutional buyers and brokers entirely at this size. Encore and Intrum acquire bulk consumer portfolios, and Runci's smallest brokered deal ran $1.0 million. Neither channel takes a small commercial book, so a single-claim buyer or a contingency agency covers every realistic scenario for a sub-$250k seller.
FAQs
What's the minimum portfolio size debt buyers accept? It depends entirely on the buyer type, because institutional purchasers like Encore and Intrum acquire bulk portfolios from banks and utilities while single-claim buyers accept books of any size. Encore and Intrum publish no minimum, but their institutional counterparties signal floors far above a sub-$250k commercial book. Delos AI buys individual claims outright with no minimum and no requirement to bundle invoices.
Can I sell a single unpaid invoice instead of a portfolio? Yes, if you sell to a buyer built for individual commercial claims rather than bundled portfolios. Delos AI purchases one documented B2B invoice outright, so you skip the bundling floor that brokers and institutional buyers impose.
How fast can a small B2B debt sale close? A single documented claim can close in days rather than the multi-week underwriting timelines institutional buyers run. Delos AI closes in days because it underwrites one invoice at a time instead of a bulk portfolio. That means a written-off receivable becomes cash before quarter close.
What documentation do buyers require? Buyers want a genuine, documented, and enforceable invoice with the underlying contract, delivery records, and account history. Recovery probability drops sharply beyond 180 days past due, and pricing follows that curve.
Do commercial debt buyers follow the same rules as consumer debt collectors? No, commercial B2B collections run under state contract law and the UCC rather than the FDCPA that governs consumer debt. That legal distinction shapes how buyers underwrite and pursue commercial claims.
Conclusion
If you hold a single documented commercial invoice under $250k, Delos AI is the clear fit. It buys individual claims outright with no bundling and no portfolio minimum, pays roughly 80% of face value, and closes in days. When you want to sell but can bundle well above $250k, a broker like Runci Group opens the institutional market. When you would rather not sell at all and can wait for recovery, a contingency agency collects for a 25%-50% commission with no upfront cash.
Start by checking whether your claim is genuine, documented, and current, since a fresh, enforceable invoice sells cleanly. Then match your situation to the buyer type in the table above. If you hold a single documented commercial invoice under $250k, Delos AI can price it and close in days.