I have yet to see a direct funder or lender in this space, not have some sort of online publicity. A press release about a new equity round, a press release about opening up their shop and the top level people working there, etc., etc.

More time needs to be spent vetting who you partner with. Anybody can "tell you" anything, if you put their name in the Google Search Engine and you put their company in the Google Search Engine, and literally nothing comes up on that person or the company, then they are either lying or significantly inefficient at publicity. My gut would lean more to the possibility of them lying.