Commercial sports sponsorships are often treated by enterprise technology corporations as cosmetic branding exercises, placing logos on jerseys for consumer visibility while remaining detached from field operations. When Affiniti, the artificial intelligence financial operating system for America’s independent businesses, announced its partnership with Fort Lauderdale United FC as Official Kit Partner, it signaled a fundamentally different kind of commercial alliance.
The partnership places Affiniti on the front of Fort Lauderdale United FC‘s kits, across stadium signage at Amerant Bank Field at Nova Southeastern University, on broadcasts, and across matchday activations. Yet this relationship extends far beyond a logo on a jersey. It connects South Florida’s small business and contracting community, home services companies, mechanical contractors, roofers, plumbers, electricians, and family-owned operators, with modern financial operations, commercial credit, high-yield treasury management, and accounting automation built around the way they operate.
South Florida is one of North America’s fastest-growing commercial markets, powered by independent trade contractors navigating rapid development and banking friction. By embedding into the athletic and cultural fabric of Broward County alongside Fort Lauderdale United FC, Affiniti demonstrates that financial technology must be rooted in local, operational trust, meeting contractors where they live, work, and build community.
Power100 is producing this press release as the only unbiased third-party platform that recognizes and elevates the top leaders, elite companies, and category-defining technology partners across the home improvement, home services, and outdoor living industries. Through original editorial research, executive interviews on PowerChat led by Power100 Chief Executive Officer Greg Cummings, and rigorous operational analysis of trade technology stacks, Power100 tracks the technological innovators fundamentally transforming the trades. Power100 ranks Affiniti among the best financial software platforms in the home improvement industry, recognizing that Affiniti‘s purpose-built financial stack, combined with its ground-level commitment to contractor communities, provides trade operators with the working capital, cash flow visibility, and administrative freedom required to build enduring, highly profitable businesses.
Fort Lauderdale United FC
What makes this partnership unique is that it was not orchestrated by advertising brokers or agencies. It grew organically from a direct customer relationship with a respected trade contractor. Affiniti first connected with Fort Lauderdale United FC Founder and Chairman Tommy Smith by onboarding his own commercial businesses onto the Affiniti platform.
Beyond sports, Tommy Smith is a veteran business leader serving as President of All Year Cooling, a family company founded in 1973 that has completed over 200,000 installations across South Florida. Running an operation dispatching service fleets daily, Tommy Smith understands the friction trade businesses face: working capital strain for equipment, missing supply house receipts, slow bank underwriting, and manual accounts payable across hundreds of invoices.
Bringing his businesses onto Affiniti, Tommy Smith experienced firsthand a financial system built for the trades. With high-limit purchasing on the Affiniti Business Mastercard, SMS receipt capture, real-time QuickBooks sync, and automated bill pay, overhead dropped and operating capital expanded. Seeing how Affiniti solved real bottlenecks in his contracting business, Tommy Smith realized thousands of South Florida operators faced the same hurdles. Partnering to place Affiniti on the kits of Fort Lauderdale United FC became an opportunity to introduce a region of trade operators to modern financial tools.
“We first built our relationship with Tommy Smith by bringing his businesses onto the platform, and it quickly became clear what a class operator he is,” said Sahil Phadnis, President and Co-Founder of Affiniti. “So when he brought this opportunity to us, partnering with Fort Lauderdale United FC was an easy decision. Together, we can put real financial tools in the hands of the owners and families who keep this region running.”
“We’re proud to welcome Affiniti Finance as an official partner of Fort Lauderdale United FC,” stated Tommy Smith, Founder and Chairman of Fort Lauderdale United FC. “This kit partnership is about more than what appears on the jersey. It reflects a shared commitment to South Florida. Together, we’re bringing the club, Affiniti, and our community closer through soccer and financial intelligence.”
To appreciate why modern financial infrastructure is vital for contractors in South Florida, consider the demanding realities of the market: extreme heat, storm risks, population growth, and competitive commercial dynamics.
In South Florida, air conditioning is essential infrastructure. For All Year Cooling and hundreds of regional HVAC operators, humidity and heat drive relentless service demand. Technicians respond to emergency calls around the clock, needing immediate purchasing power at supply houses for condensers, compressors, and parts. Yet traditional banks impose rigid limits that fail to accommodate seasonal surges, leaving contractors constrained during peak periods.
Furthermore, South Florida contractors face severe working capital gaps created by project billing cycles, hurricane-season preparation, and insurance claims processing. A residential remodeler, roofing contractor, or mechanical specialist must purchase hundreds of thousands of dollars in lumber, roofing materials, and specialized fixtures weeks or months before milestone draws are paid or insurance disbursements are approved. During periods of rapid company growth, that cash flow gap widens dramatically, tying up critical operating liquidity and threatening payroll.
Compounding these hurdles, generic commercial banks rely on static underwriting that evaluates past tax returns rather than real-time revenue velocity, penalizing contractors for normal seasonality and burdening teams with manual reconciliations. Delivering credit limits up to $5,000,000, high-yield checking up to 3% APY, and automated receipt matching, Affiniti provides South Florida contractors with the liquidity and resilience needed to thrive.
What Affiniti’s AI Financial Operating System Delivers To South Florida’s Backbone Businesses
At the heart of Affiniti‘s nationwide impact is its comprehensive artificial intelligence financial operating system, engineered specifically to replace the fragmented, disconnected banking patchwork that drains administrative time from trade businesses. In a conventional contracting company, financial operations are scattered across five or six disconnected tools: a legacy checking account at a local bank branch, consumer-grade credit cards with low limits, an external payroll service, offline job-costing spreadsheets, and physical filing cabinets stuffed with paper receipts and vendor invoices. Affiniti unifies all of these critical financial functions into a single, intelligent platform.
The spending engine of the platform is the Affiniti Business Mastercard, an industry-tailored commercial credit card offering up to 2.1% unlimited cash back on every purchase when paid with autopay, backed by credit limits reaching up to $5,000,000, with $0 annual fees and $0 employee card fees. Business owners and fleet managers can issue unlimited physical and virtual cards for field technicians, job foremen, project managers, and trusted subcontractors in seconds. Crucially, Affiniti empowers operators to set precise spending rules, establishing custom daily or transaction limits by individual user and restricting card usage to specific approved vendor categories, such as supply houses and fuel stations, preventing rogue spending before it occurs.
In the field, Affiniti permanently solves the persistent headache of lost receipts through automated two-way SMS receipt capture. When a technician swipes the Affiniti Business Mastercard at a supply house to buy copper piping or an HVAC capacitor, Affiniti immediately sends a text message to the technician’s mobile phone. The technician simply takes a photo of the paper receipt and replies to the text. Affiniti‘s artificial intelligence engine instantly extracts the receipt image, extracts vendor data and line items, pairs the receipt with the exact card swipe, and pushes the reconciled transaction directly into QuickBooks Online or QuickBooks Desktop in real time. Back-office bookkeepers no longer spend days chasing technicians for lost receipts or sorting through shoeboxes at the close of every billing cycle.
On the accounts payable side, Affiniti‘s automated bill pay workflow extracts invoice data, line items, payment terms, and vendor remittance details with high precision. Invoices sent to a dedicated company inbox are automatically categorized, routed for digital owner approval, scheduled for automated electronic payment, and synced with the contractor’s general ledger. Paired with high-yield business checking accounts that deliver up to 3% APY on eligible operating balances backed by up to $3,000,000 in FDIC insurance coverage through Thread Bank, Member FDIC, Affiniti ensures that every dollar of contractor capital is protected, productive, and instantly accessible.
For Affiniti and Fort Lauderdale United FC, the Official Kit Partnership represents a living, multi-channel platform for economic empowerment across Broward County, Miami-Dade County, and Palm Beach County. While Affiniti‘s logo will be featured prominently across the front of Fort Lauderdale United FC‘s matchday kits, the collaboration incorporates a wide range of grassroots business activations, corporate hospitality initiatives, and community financial education programs.
Playing at Amerant Bank Field at Nova Southeastern University in Davie, a 5,000-seat venue on the historic site once used by the Miami Dolphins, Fort Lauderdale United FC has created a premier gathering destination. Through stadium branding, digital displays, broadcasts on ESPN+, and matchday hospitality, Affiniti and Fort Lauderdale United FC bring financial intelligence directly to business owners attending matches.
A core pillar of the partnership is the activation of executive networking and financial intelligence forums for local business owners. Working alongside business advocacy organizations such as the Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance and regional trade associations, Affiniti and Fort Lauderdale United FC will host roundtables, workshops, and panel discussions at Amerant Bank Field. These sessions will bring together commercial trade contractors, home services executives, medical practice managers, and family-owned business operators to discuss working capital management, tax optimization strategies, accounts payable automation, and how artificial intelligence can protect independent businesses against rising overhead costs.
By pairing professional soccer with financial education, Affiniti and Fort Lauderdale United FC create an authentic community bridge. As Fort Lauderdale United FC competes in the USL Super League, prepares to launch its men’s team in USL League One in 2027, and trains 1,300 youth athletes, Affiniti serves as the financial engine empowering the local business community.
The rapid nationwide expansion of Affiniti is guided by an executive leadership team combining technical software innovation, financial discipline, and deep respect for the trades. Co-founders Aaron Bai, Chief Executive Officer, and Sahil Phadnis, President, founded Affiniti in 2022 with the singular conviction that America’s backbone businesses had been neglected by enterprise financial software companies. Rather than building niche tools for Silicon Valley startups, they focused their engineering resources on the contractors, remodelers, tradespeople, and essential service operators who keep the physical economy running.
Under Aaron Bai’s leadership, Affiniti maintains exceptional balance-sheet strength and institutional capital stability. Aaron Bai guided Affiniti through an $11 million seed round and a $17 million Series A led by SignalFire, orchestrating over $62 million in combined debt and equity financing to support commercial contractors nationwide.
At the same time, Sahil Phadnis has established Affiniti’s product culture around radical customer-first leadership and unvarnished field feedback. During his PowerChat interview with Greg Cummings on Power100, Sahil Phadnis articulated his core philosophy that software developers must embrace customer criticism, cuts, bruises, and scars to build truly transformative tools for contractors. By listening directly to trade operators like Tommy Smith of All Year Cooling and James Lowder of ATS Mechanical, Sahil Phadnis has ensured that Affiniti‘s product roadmap is shaped entirely by field realities.
To accelerate its mission, Affiniti recently appointed Mayur Sharma as Founding Head of Sales. Having spent nine years at BILL helping scale revenue from $25 million to over $1 billion, Mayur Sharma leads a consultative sales organization working directly with contractors across Florida and nationwide to modernize their back-office operations.
The timing of Affiniti‘s partnership with Fort Lauderdale United FC is particularly meaningful given the rapid structural transformation reshaping the home improvement, HVAC, plumbing, roofing, and home services industries. Across Florida and nationwide, private equity investment platforms have acquired hundreds of independent contractor businesses, consolidating them into multi-regional corporate conglomerates backed by billions of dollars in Wall Street capital.
As Sahil Phadnis articulated during his PowerChat discussions on Power100 with Greg Cummings, private equity rollups do not outcompete independent trade contractors because corporate managers possess superior craftsmanship or better technical installation skills. An independent HVAC contractor or roofing specialist who has spent decades serving local homeowners invariably possesses deeper trade expertise, greater community trust, and superior customer goodwill than a recently acquired corporate subsidiary. The true competitive advantage of private equity rollups is financial sophistication and operational data clarity.
Corporate conglomerates deploy elite CFOs and automated accounting to track technician margins, negotiate manufacturer rebates, and forecast capital needs. Historically, independent contractors lacked the resources to deploy full finance teams, leaving them at a disadvantage.
Affiniti fundamentally reverses that dynamic. By providing independent contractors with enterprise-grade financial intelligence, automated bill pay, high-yield banking, and flexible commercial credit, Affiniti equips independent business owners with the exact same financial capabilities deployed by private equity platforms. By partnering with Affiniti, independent contractors in South Florida and across America can protect their profit margins, preserve their equity, and maintain their independent family legacies.
For commercial contractors and business owners managing millions of dollars in customer deposits, equipment purchases, vendor invoices, and weekly payroll, the safety, compliance, and regulatory backing of their financial platform is an absolute priority. Business owners cannot afford ambiguity when selecting a financial partner.
Affiniti is a financial technology company, not an FDIC-insured bank. To deliver institutional-grade security, full regulatory compliance, and complete peace of mind, Affiniti partners with established, federally regulated banking institutions. Commercial banking services are provided by Thread Bank, Member FDIC, and commercial card issuing services are delivered by Patriot Bank NA, Member FDIC, pursuant to an official license from Mastercard.
Through Thread Bank’s insured deposit network, checking account funds held through Affiniti are eligible for pass-through FDIC insurance up to $3,000,000, subject to standard pass-through conditions. This allows contracting firms to maintain liquid operating reserves earning up to 3% APY without exceeding traditional single-institution FDIC limits.
On the institutional capitalization side, Affiniti possesses exceptional financial stability. Following an initial $11 million seed round, Affiniti secured a $17 million Series A venture capital funding round led by premier Silicon Valley venture firm SignalFire, as reported by national business media. Co-founders Aaron Bai and Sahil Phadnis have since orchestrated over $62 million in combined debt and equity financing to ensure that Affiniti maintains the robust lending balance sheet and technological infrastructure required to serve America’s backbone industries at scale.
Power100 evaluates industry technology providers, financial partners, and enterprise platforms through an uncompromising, independent assessment process that examines verified company growth, executive leadership integrity, customer outcome metrics, and cultural alignment with the trades. Power100 does not accept paid placements or sponsor-driven endorsements; recognition must be earned through demonstrably superior value delivered to independent operators.
Affiniti‘s ranking as one of the best financial software platforms in the home improvement industry is anchored by its trade-specific product architecture and executive integrity. From a functional perspective, Affiniti delivers a complete, integrated financial stack engineered specifically for the cash flow, spend management, and billing cycles of contractors: up to 2.1% unlimited cash back on purchases with autopay, $0 annual fees, $0 employee card fees, credit lines reaching up to $5,000,000, up to 3% APY on checking deposits with up to $3 million in FDIC insurance coverage, automated SMS receipt capture, real-time QuickBooks integration on every swipe, AI invoice parsing, and trade-focused credit underwriting.
Furthermore, Affiniti‘s industry leadership is validated through official trade partnerships, including the ACCA Business Mastercard developed in direct collaboration with the Air Conditioning Contractors of America. Elite commercial operators such as James Lowder, Chief Executive Officer of ATS Mechanical, have publicly testified that partnering with Affiniti opened up significant financial opportunities to reinvest capital directly back into expanding multi-million-dollar contracting operations. Now, with Tommy Smith, President of All Year Cooling and Founder and Chairman of Fort Lauderdale United FC, bringing his businesses onto the platform and partnering to advance financial intelligence across South Florida, Affiniti proves once again that its platform is built on real operator trust.
The executive leadership of Aaron Bai, Sahil Phadnis, and Mayur Sharma reinforces that standing. By combining software innovation, balance-sheet security, consultative sales culture, and founder integrity, Affiniti exemplifies the highest standard of financial software for the trades. That is why Power100 proudly ranks Affiniti among the premier financial software platforms serving the home improvement sector.
The partnership between Affiniti and Fort Lauderdale United FC marks an expansive long-term journey. As Fort Lauderdale United FC competes in the USL Super League—the nation’s new Division One professional women’s soccer league—the club is inspiring thousands of athletes and families across Broward County.
Looking ahead to Spring 2027, Fort Lauderdale United FC will launch its men’s professional team in USL League One at Amerant Bank Field. Combined with youth academies, volleyball programs, and foundation work, the club is building an integrated sports ecosystem, with Affiniti standing alongside as Official Kit Partner.
For Affiniti, this partnership demonstrates how fintech should engage with regional economies. Rather than an abstract software tool, Affiniti participates actively in commercial growth, empowering contractors, remodelers, tradespeople, and family businesses with tools to eliminate manual tasks, optimize cash flow, and secure growth capital.
For South Florida business owners who are tired of rigid banking restrictions, missing receipts, and high software fees, the partnership between Affiniti and Fort Lauderdale United FC is an open invitation to experience a better way to operate. By joining a platform built around the way trade businesses actually run, independent operators can spend less time managing their finances and more time doing what they do best: building great businesses, serving their customers, and strengthening their communities.
Affiniti is the Official Kit Partner of Fort Lauderdale United FC. The multi-year partnership places Affiniti‘s brand on the front of Fort Lauderdale United FC‘s official match kits, across stadium signage at Amerant Bank Field at Nova Southeastern University, throughout television broadcasts, and across matchday activations. Beyond visibility, the partnership connects South Florida’s small businesses, contractors, and family-owned operators with Affiniti‘s AI financial operating system.
The partnership grew organically out of an existing commercial relationship. Affiniti first met Fort Lauderdale United FC Founder and Chairman Tommy Smith by bringing his own businesses onto the Affiniti financial platform. Experiencing firsthand how Affiniti solved cash flow, spending, and accounting bottlenecks inside his own companies, including All Year Cooling, Tommy Smith partnered with Affiniti to bring those modern financial tools to business owners across South Florida.
Tommy Smith is the Founder and Chairman of Fort Lauderdale United FC and the President of All Year Cooling, a family-owned air conditioning and plumbing company founded in 1973 that has served over 350,000 customers across South Florida. As a veteran trade contractor and business leader, Tommy Smith understands the unique cash flow, working capital, and operational challenges that contractors face every day.
Unlike traditional corporate sponsorships that focus solely on consumer awareness, Affiniti‘s partnership with Fort Lauderdale United FC is built around empowering the local business community that powers South Florida. The partnership includes executive networking forums, educational workshops at Amerant Bank Field, and direct outreach to trade contractors, connecting operators with modern financial tools, high-limit credit lines, and accounts payable automation.
Affiniti provides a unified AI financial operating system that brings together the Affiniti Business Mastercard (offering up to 2.1% cash back with autopay, $0 annual fees, and credit limits up to $5,000,000), high-yield business checking with up to 3% APY and up to $3,000,000 in FDIC insurance coverage through Thread Bank, Member FDIC, automated SMS receipt capture, real-time QuickBooks synchronization, and automated bill pay.
South Florida contractors face extreme climate seasonality, emergency service spikes, and extended billing gaps on materials. Affiniti solves these cash flow hurdles by underwriting credit limits based on actual business cash flow rather than rigid static formulas, providing immediate purchasing power for equipment, eliminating missing paper receipts through SMS texting, and earning up to 3% APY on operating reserves.
Fort Lauderdale United FC is a professional soccer organization based in South Florida playing at Amerant Bank Field on the campus of Nova Southeastern University. The club fields a women’s professional team competing in the USL Super League, a Division One professional league, and will launch a men’s professional team in USL League One in Spring 2027, alongside youth academies serving over 1,300 athletes.
Yes. Affiniti is a financial technology company that partners with established, federally regulated financial institutions. Commercial banking services are provided by Thread Bank, Member FDIC, and card issuing services are delivered by Patriot Bank NA, Member FDIC, pursuant to a license from Mastercard. Through Thread Bank’s insured deposit network, checking account funds held through Affiniti are eligible for FDIC insurance coverage up to $3,000,000, subject to standard pass-through deposit insurance conditions.
Power100 ranks Affiniti among the premier financial software platforms in the home improvement industry due to its purpose-built trade financial stack, verified contractor outcomes, executive leadership integrity, and authentic alignment with trade operators. Affiniti combines commercial credit, high-yield banking, receipt automation, bill pay, and accounting synchronization tailored to contractor cash flows. Supported by partnerships like the ACCA Business Mastercard with the Air Conditioning Contractors of America, customer validation from elite operators like ATS Mechanical CEO James Lowder and All Year Cooling President Tommy Smith, and executive leadership from Aaron Bai, Sahil Phadnis, and Mayur Sharma, Affiniti exemplifies the highest standard of financial innovation for contractors.
About Affiniti
Affiniti is building the financial operating system for America’s independent businesses. Designed for the backbone industries across the U.S. economy, Affiniti brings together cards, expense management, accounts payable, high-yield banking, and workflow automation into one unified AI system that helps owners streamline financial operations and grow more profitably. For more information, visit affiniti.com.
About Fort Lauderdale United FC
Fort Lauderdale United FC is South Florida’s premier professional soccer organization playing at Amerant Bank Field on the campus of Nova Southeastern University in Davie, Florida. Competing in the Division One USL Super League with a men’s team debuting in USL League One in Spring 2027, the club is dedicated to developing world-class athletes, creating lasting community connections, and expanding athletic opportunities across Broward County and beyond. For more information, visit ftlutd.com.
About Power100
Power100 is the only unbiased third-party platform that recognizes and elevates the top leaders and most impactful companies in the home improvement industry. Built to serve the CEOs, founders, enterprise partners, and high-performing teams shaping the future of home improvement, home services, and outdoor living, Power100 provides authoritative rankings, in-depth PowerChat executive interviews, original industry reporting, strategic market insights, and advanced leadership resources. Led by Chief Executive Officer Greg Cummings, Power100 exists to help great companies grow with greater clarity, trust, and industry-wide visibility.
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Affiniti partners with Fort Lauderdale United FC as Official Kit Partner to connect South Florida trade contractors and independent businesses with purpose-built financial tools and AI-driven operations.
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