Canadian growth capital startup Clear Finance Technology Corp., which operates under the name Clearco, raised US$ 215M in investment on 8 July 2021.
Investors: The funding round was led by Tokyo-based SoftBank through its Vision Fund 2, with participation from Intuit Inc., Bow Capital and Park West. In April, Clearco was valued at nearly US$ 2 billion after a Series C funding round.
Purpose of the funding: The funds raised will be used to pay for expansion abroad and product development. Clearco launched in the U.K. last October and the Netherlands in May. It is planning to expand into Asia by the end of 2021
About Clearco
Founded in 2015 by Andrew D’Souza and Michele Romanow, Clearco provides money to small online businesses. Clearco offers a suite of performance financing products and services tailor-made for founders in all stages of their journey. Its mission is to remove the barriers between brilliant ideas and brilliant businesses. Formerly known as Clearbanc, Clearco is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
The startup provides funding to technology entrepreneurs in exchange for revenue-sharing agreements. It can be called as an alternative to venture capital for owners who don’t want to give up equity. Entrepreneurs can easily apply for growth capital on the platform without having to network or formally pitch. The investment decisions are based on a data-driven evaluation of performance metrics, resulting in a greater diversity of founders backed.
Clearco claims to have invested over US$ 2.4 billion in 5,500 businesses, with individual investments of as much as US$ 10 million. In 2020, 13% of its funding went to companies led by Black and Latino founders, compared to 2.6% across the venture capital industry, The startup further claims that it has backed eight times more female-founded businesses than the industry average for venture capital firms.
What the founders have to say: “When we make an investment decision, we don’t see a picture of the founders. We don’t know what you look like. It’s really based on what your unit economics look like and audience sizes. Taking a totally different approach has allowed us to see something totally different.” – President of Clearco, Michele Romanow.
“We’re a company that was built by founders for founders, and we’ve all faced the same issues we are working to not only solve but replace with better products and opportunities.” — Andrew D’Souza, co-founder of Clearco.
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