BlackRock TCP Capital: Portfolio Company Written Down To Zero in IVQ 2025

INTRODUCTION

We're republishing an article from the BDC Credit Reporter about a portfolio company of BlackRock TCP Capital (TCPC), which is much in the news these days, thanks to a shout-out by Bloomberg, which has been relayed across the credit-sphere. Critics are using this story as some sort of evidence that BDCs are unreliable in their investment valuations and as a symptom of wider troubles. We don't think so, but we'll let our readers decide for themselves.

Reprinted from the BDC Credit Reporter

All Rights Reserved

Infinite Commerce: Written Down To Zero in IVQ 2025

Remains Rated CCR 5. No Longer An Important Underperformer.

March 6, 2026

Razor Group GmbH (also operating under the legal name Whele, LLC, doing business as Perch) is a Germany- and U.S.-based e-commerce aggregator specializing in acquiring and scaling Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) businesses across global marketplaces. Founded in 2020 and headquartered in Berlin, Razor quickly became one of Europe’s largest Amazon aggregators, raising over $400 million in debt and equity from investors including Victory Park Capital and BlackRock. In March 2024, Razor acquired Perch, a U.S. FBA aggregator operating under Whele, LLC, further expanding its U.S. presence and brand portfolio. In August 2025, Perch merged with Infinite Commerce, another e-commerce aggregator formed in 2024 from the merger of 4 other companies. Infinite Comerce operates under the Razor brand.COMPANY PROFILE

Infinite Commerce has been much in the financial news of late because of an article in Bloomberg that was picked up by Seeking Alpha and others. The article's headline tells all:

BlackRock Slashed Private Loan Value From 100 to Zero

The article went on as follows:

BlackRock Inc. slashed the value of a private loan to zero at the end of 2025, just three months after assessing it at 100 cents on the dollar, marking the second sudden wipeout to recently hit its private-credit division.

The other "wipeout" referenced is Renovo Home Partners, which we have discussed previously.

The BDC Credit Reporter has been following the Razor/Infinite Commerce story for years. In a nutshell, Razor Group has been attempting to become viable by merging with other e-commerce aggregators. In 2024, Razor absorbed Perch, another BDC-financed company, which itself had acquired Whele, also BDC-financed. The August merger with Infinite Commerce - albeit doing business as Razor - was the most recent attempt to rescue the business. We discussed the merger in an earlier article in which we were skeptical about the outcome.

That appears to have been the right instinct as the company's main BDC lender, BlackRock TCP (TCPC) has placed all 3 loans on its books to the company on non-accrual. All $25mn in debt has been written down from par at the time of the merger to zero. Preferred and equity stakes held are still given some nominal value.

For TCPC, this ongoing attempt to rescue Razor has already resulted in ($73mn) in realized losses, booked at the time of the Infinite merger, and is likely to rise to ($100mn) if the debt gets wiped out. However, Razor/Infinite Commerce remains operational, so this story is not over yet. We imagine the debt written down, which sat very low on the company's balance sheet, might have been made technically worthless by the raising of new capital recently to keep operations going.

For the moment, we continue to rate the company CCR 5, or non-performing. Given the loss of value, though, this is no longer an Important Underperformer even if the quixotic attempt by TCPC marches on.

Afterword

We don't find the "slashing" of the TCPC loan to zero all that surprising. Anyone following the Razor story will have known the company was in dire straits and values could change quickly. The "real" story here is the setback that TCPC - and some other BDCs - have suffered over a multi-year period in the e-commerce aggregation space. Besides Razor, there's Thrasio, SellerX, Forum Brands, and Merama - all who've experienced different degrees of distress.

With the benefit of hindsight, these investments seem ill-advised, but when first made, the entire sector was in fast growth mode and attracting vast amounts of capital. According to one report, e-commerce aggregation attracted $6bn of equity and debt in 2021, at the height. We believe the lenders convinced themselves to get involved partly on the basis of the very high valuations involved, which, on the proverbial paper, showed their loans to enterprise value as being very reasonable.

However, the investors were wrong: the hype caused the aggregators to overpay for businesses purchased, and then online trading volumes slumped after Covid and as Amazon ramped up as a competitor.

This is the difference between lending against long-term historical EBITDA performance versus against prospective EBITDA, but based on a reasonable LTV. SaaS companies - also much in the news these days - are of the latter variety but many of them have grown into their expected EBITDA. E-commerce aggregators have not, and with very little fresh capital coming in, a crash was inevitable.

BlackRock seems to have convinced itself that e-commerce aggregation is a sound business model and only needs appropriate consolidation and rationalization. Those are the reasons they gave for sticking with their portfolio companies through thick and thin. Infinite Commerce seems to be on its last legs, but Thrasio - post-bankruptcy - is still in the fight, as is SellerX. BlackRock's doggedness may yet prove to be right. We'll continue to update you as time goes by.