Founderpath, the platform 6,500 bootstrapped B2B SaaS founders use to get capital, announced $145m in debt and equity funding to continue helping more B2B SaaS founders hit $10m in revenue without selling equity.

Founderpath chose to bypass traditional VC’s and instead raised from a collection of top SaaS founders. These founders include:

1. Henry Schuck, Founder of ZoomInfo
2. Giles Palmer, Founder of Brandwatch (Acquired $450m)
3. Haroon Mokhtarzada, founder of Webs.com and Truebill (Acquired $1.3b)
4. Savneet Singh (Par Tech, CoVenture)

The round was led by Coromandel Capital and Forbright Bank on the debt side ($8b AUM) and Singh Capital Partners (SCP) on the equity side.

"SCP is a network of over 800 LP’s who are public company SaaS executives, current or exited founders, and family offices . Earlier this year we started seeing pullback from equity investors in B2B SaaS and decided we needed to get into the non-dilutive capital space. After studying countless companies, it became clear that Founderpath is who we needed to get behind. Latka’s ability to bring founders together and his charisma is what sealed the deal for us." - Manpreet Singh, CIO at Singh Capital Partners.

These super angels are now resources for all Founderpath founders. 

Founderpath Has Another $150m To Deploy to SaaS Founders

Last year, Founderpath was introduced to Coromandel Capital and partnered with them on a $50m facility:

We are excited about extending the partnership with Founderpath and adding Forbright into the facility, as the team has exhibited sophistication in expeditiously decisioning opportunities at favorable unit economics and without sacrificing quality.

Rob McGregor, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Coromandel Capital.

Today, Founderpath is announcing that Coromandel has led and brought in Forbright Bank to extend the size of the Founderpath debt facility to $145m:

We are excited to partner with Founderpath’s management team and look forward to supporting the company’s continuing growth. Leveraging real-time API’s that guide underwriting decisions, Founderpath provides customized capital solutions to B2B SaaS companies, while also offering valued portfolio management tools.

Chris Erb, Managing Director at Forbright Bank. 

Simpl, India’s foremost checkout network, has announced a partnership with ConfirmTkt to simplify payments. Through this alliance, Simpl will enable convenient digital payments to ConfirmTkt’s vast customer base, empowering them to plan their train travel better.

The collaboration between Simpl and ConfirmTkt is unique since both companies have products specifically tailored for the Indian market with its distinctive characteristics: customers’ need for convenience, simplicity, ease of use, and speed. ConfirmTkt is a B2C distribution platform for IRCTC for rail bookings in India, with its USP built around predicting confirmation chances for waitlisted tickets and giving alternate travel and train recommendations. 

“We are proud to partner with ConfirmTkt. The increase in travel activity, whether for leisure or business, is expected to boost the revenues of multiple mobility modes, especially the train route, still considered one of the most popular and common modes of travel in India. What’s interesting is that Simpl and ConfirmTkt share certain unique traits, i.e., a strong understanding of the Indian ecosystem and product scalability. Both products have been built to cater specifically to the needs of the Indian consumer. Together, we are focused on serving the Indian market, with the added advantage of product offerings at scale,’ said Nitya Sharma, Co-Founder & CEO, Simpl.’

A winning alliance exemplified by similarities

Simpl offers a cardless checkout network with innovative products such as 1-click checkout and Pay-in-3. The latest collaboration with ConfirmTkt further strengthens Simpl’s robust partner network of over 20,000 merchants. Simpl’s tech capabilities in the digital payments realm find valuable application across diverse product categories, including lifestyle, beauty, fitness, apparel, foods, and mobility.

New-age digital payments meets mass mobility

The pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital payments and contactless payments, especially within the tourism and travel Industry. People are more confident about traveling by booking tickets using digital payment options as it provides a flexible, secure, and streamlined process to complete their end transactions.

Commenting on the partnership, Sripad Vaidya, Co-founder & COO, Confirmtkt said, "We are excited to join hands with Simpl to provide a seamless experience of online travel ticket booking to our valued customers. We hope our partnership will promote a safe, convenient, and improved travel experience for all rail passengers.”

Adding depth to train travel

It’s well known that the Indian Railways is the preferred choice of travel by the vast majority of people even today. ConfirmTkt’s customers will greatly benefit from Simpl’s 1-click checkout for their ticket purchases without worrying about an upfront cash outflow. This would contribute to further deepening the train travel market through enhanced affordability and convenience.

AQRU plc, a company specialising in decentralised finance (“DeFi”), announces today that Digby Try, Executive Director and Co-founder of AQRU, has been appointed Chief Commercial Officer of the Company.  

Mr Try has over 20 years of experience in senior management roles in the currency, payments and fintech sectors in both the UK and US. Prior to founding AQRU, Mr Try was Head of Global Sales at banking and payments platform OpenPayd, where he worked alongside many of the world’s leading crypto exchanges to deliver fiat banking rails to the crypto industry. His other previous roles include Vice  President of Sales for EMEA at international payments platform Currencycloud, which was acquired by Visa for £700m in 2021, Business Development Manager at foreign exchange specialist Moneycorp,  and Head of Dealing in the US for international transfer service provider HiFX. 

Mr Try’s appointment as Chief Commercial Officer comes shortly after Kamelia Gankova was appointed Chief Operating Officer and Managing Director of AQRU’s wholly owned subsidiary Accru  Finance Ltd. (“Accru Finance”). In this role, Ms Gankova will help Accru Finance grow its service offering by launching products that enable customers to take advantage of the increasing number of investment opportunities available in the decentralised market. 

Ms Gankova has more than 15 years of experience streamlining operations and delivering market expansion initiatives for companies in the cryptocurrency, fintech and gaming sectors. Before joining  Accru Finance, Ms Gankova was Managing Director at cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com, where she established and grew the company’s operations in Bulgaria. She was also Director of Customer  Service at multinational online payments company Paysafe, where she managed the merger of the company’s different multinational customer service teams, and Head of Servicing for online wallet and international payments platform Skrill, with responsibility for overseeing the Customer Service,  Merchant Service, VIP service and Payments departments.  

Philip Blows, Chief Executive of AQRU, commented: 

“We are delighted to welcome Digby and Kamelia to their new roles. With more than 35 years of combined experience helping companies in the fintech and crypto sectors navigate periods of change  and grow their operations, Digby and Kamelia will continue bringing valuable insights and expertise to  ensure we keep delivering services that enable both retail and institutional investors to take advantage  of all the opportunities available in DeFi.”

Today the British Business Bank announces that it has accredited the first batch of five lenders under the new iteration of the Recovery Loan Scheme (RLS).

The lenders – Bank of Scotland, Coventry & Warwickshire Reinvestment Trust (CWRT), Lloyds Bank, NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland – will be able to offer facilities of up to £2m for borrowers outside the scope of the Northern Ireland Protocol and up to £1m for those in the scope of the Northern Ireland Protocol.

The scheme aims to improve the terms on offer to borrowers. It is designed to be used at the discretion of the lender where appropriate. If a lender can offer a commercial loan on better terms, they will do so.

The Bank continues to review applications from a wide range of lender types – from Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA)-regulated banks to platform lenders, debt funds, invoice finance lenders, asset finance lenders and responsible finance lenders.

Additional lenders will be added to the accredited lenders listing on the British Business Bank website once they are confirmed as participants in the scheme.

About the Recovery Loan Scheme

The new iteration of the Recovery Loan Scheme (RLS) is designed to support access to finance for UK businesses as they look to recover and grow.

Businesses can use finance for any legitimate business purpose – including managing cash flow, investment and growth. However, businesses must be able to afford to take out additional debt finance for these purposes. Earlier iterations of the scheme provided over £4.5bn of finance to smaller businesses between April 2021 and 30 June 2022.

The British Business Bank administers the scheme on behalf of the Secretary of State for BEIS.

Oxane Partners (“Oxane”), a leading technology-driven solutions provider to private markets, announced that it has received its maiden primary servicing rating from S&P Global Ratings with a stable outlook. Oxane forayed into loan servicing in early 2020 with the launch of Loan Servicing 2.0, transforming the traditional servicing paradigm to deliver digitalisation, transparency, and responsiveness to lenders. The rating from S&P Global reflects the strong servicing expertise and technological capabilities underpinning Loan Servicing 2.0. Oxane’s proprietary technology has been consistently recognised as a key differentiator by rating agencies.

Loan Servicing 2.0 builds on Oxane’s position as a proven technology leader in the investment management space. With Loan Servicing 2.0, lenders get complete data accuracy, digital access to investment data and reports, and a servicing team that is highly responsive and focused on proactive surveillance and risk monitoring. The rating report by S&P highlights Oxane’s leadership’s extensive industry experience, a solid proprietary servicing system, advanced digital automation to manage and monitor servicing tasks, and a seasoned loan servicing team backed by strong policies, procedures, and controls.

Oxane has worked with lenders across the UK and Europe to digitalise the deal lifecycle from deal closing until exit through its award-winning technology platforms. In a short span of two years, Oxane has won multiple mandates to act as a facility agent, security agent, and calculation agent for more than 30 global banks, and lenders across commercial real estate, corporate loan portfolios, asset finance, and private securitisations.

Vishal Soni, Co-founder of Oxane, commented, “Loan Servicing 2.0 was launched as a natural evolution of our widely successful technology and data management solutions for lenders. Technology is not an afterthought for us but is intrinsic to our servicing offering. The rating by S&P is a testament to the growth of Loan Servicing 2.0 paradigm within the industry. Lenders are keen on optimising efficiency in managing their investment operations. As a result, they are opting to work with providers who can support all their data, technology, servicing, and operations need rather than signing up multiple counterparties and complicating data and process workflows."

Oxane’s servicing business is helmed by industry veterans Andrew Tisdall and Yousuf Attarwala who have over 40 years of servicing experience between them. Oxane is the only service to be acknowledged both as a top 3 fintech player as well as a top loan servicer across the UK and Europe and has won more than five awards for its technology solutions in the last five years. Oxane recently announced they are ramping up the team with the launch of their fourth office with 100+ capacity to meet the growing demand for Loan Servicing 2.0, technology, and operations needs of global lenders.

Today, Coincover – one of the leading digital asset protection technology companies – announces the launch of the world’s first staking protection technology.  

Staking, which allows investors to put their crypto to work and earn a yield, has opened up new opportunities for the crypto market and is catching the attention of a growing number of institutional investors. However, the relatively new investment strategy comes with potential risks.  

In certain cases, the network can penalise investors, eliminating a portion of their staked currency. This means that staking organisations – and the investors that use them – are open to significant financial as well as reputational damage.  

Looking to protect investors against this vulnerability, Coincover has developed technology to protect staked assets from any kind of outage or disaster scenario, which it does by providing staking organisations with an encrypted backup key. 

Proof-of-stake depends on validators, who are chosen at random by the blockchain. In staking their cryptocurrency, investors are responsible for validating transactions via their validator key. But should a firm be unable to use its validator key – which can be caused by anything from system failures, downtime or human error – the network penalises them and a portion of their staked currency is taken away. Different networks have different validator rules and penalties, but on the Ethereum network, investors can lose up to 50% of their stake over a 21-day period and are ejected out of the validator pool after 21 days.  

Adam Smith, Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder of Coincover, says, “This technology is an industry first. Lots of our clients were talking about the need for protection so we wanted to formalise our offer. Our mission is to make the entire crypto space safer and staking is a growing part of that landscape. Firms need systems in place to prevent losses, by having their validator key backed up with a third party - in case things go wrong internally. Our backup provides a layer of security that internal technology simply can’t match.” 

This technology also comes at a time when crypto staking is taking off. https://staking.staked.us/state-of-stakingResearch shows that around 9% of cryptocurrencies are currently staked. However, the upcoming Ethereum Merge, which will see the introduction of proof-of-stake on the Ethereum network, will bring more institutions and capital into staking.  

Rosie Leheup-Ffoulkes, Product Lead at Coincover, says, “Staking is a huge area of growth for crypto, which the Merge will undoubtedly supercharge. The ability to put your crypto to work and churn out a yield is a game changer, especially for those with a long position on the market. However, it’s still a new form of investing, which most are exploring for the first time, without the systems in place to avoid getting caught on the wrong side of penalties. We want to move the industry in a direction that sees crypto companies pre-empt, plan for, and prevent risks like this before they cause problems and deter people from investing. This technology gives investors an extra layer of security, providing reassurance and building trust.” 

Tanya Ziv, Chief Compliance Officer at Currencycloud, commented, “We are delighted to be working with Clausematch to enhance our policy management solution. They will be able to support us in managing the critical evolution of our policies and procedures as we continue to grow and expand.”

Evgeny Likhoded, Clausematch’s founder and CEO said: “We’re thrilled to have Currencycloud onboard. It is a great opportunity for Clausematch to work with a high-growth Fintech company to show its capabilities when it comes to supporting our clients with tricky compliance regulations across different geographies.”

Cognito has been appointed by Provenir, a global leader in AI-powered risk decisioning software, to lead its PR in EMEA.

The appointment will see Cognito develop and deliver a strategic PR programme to boost awareness of Provenir’s offering and showcase its capabilities to fintech, financial services and technology audiences.

Provenir helps fintechs, financial institutions, and payment providers make smarter and faster decisions by simplifying the risk decisioning process. Working with disruptive financial services organizations in more than 50 countries, it processes more than three billion transactions annually. Clients include BBVA, Klarna, Zilch and GM Financial.

Provenir brings together the three essential components needed – data, AI, and decisioning – into one unified risk decisioning solution to help organizations provide world-class consumer experiences. This unique offering gives organizations the ability to power decisioning innovation across the full customer lifecycle, driving improvements in the customer experience, access to financial services, business agility, and more.

Kim Minor, SVP, Global Marketing, Provenir, comments:

“With its deep experience in our sector, Cognito is the right agency to help us continue to build brand awareness in the region. . The team brings creativity, technical excellence and passion, and we’re very much looking forward to working together.”

Paul Bowhay, Director, Cognito, said:

“We are thrilled to be working with such a dynamic and innovative business as Provenir. The company has shown considerable growth in recent years and is working with some of the world’s leading fintech and retail banking organisations. We look forward to applying our expertise to help Provenir achieve even greater levels of success and brand awareness.”

Creades AB, a Swedish investment company, invests SEK 102 million in Findity and becomes the company's largest owner. 

The SEK 102 million purchase of existing shares in Findity makes Creades AB (publ) the largest owner of Findity, at 35%. Creades was founded in 2011 and is listed on Stockholm  Nasdaq OMX main market. Creades invests in listed and private companies and other current holdings include Avanza, Instabox, Apotea and Mentimeter. 

More than 30,000 customers use Findity's products to manage expense claims,  entertainment, mileage and per diem. The company also offers its product as a white label,  where partners such as American Express, BDO and Visma SPCS use Findity’s technology for their own expense management solutions. 

"We have followed Findity’s development over some time and see great potential in the company. We are particularly impressed by their unique offering and go-to-market model,  helping both organizations, finance departments and end customers. We're excited to now  be a part of their exciting growth journey and support the company in its quest for further  international expansion." - John Hedberg, CEO, Creades 

Findity has grown by more than 40% annually in the last few years. With a strong position in the Swedish market, Findity is currently expanding to new markets. The product is available in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain and USA. 

“We wish Creades a warm welcome to Findity. We are happy to have them onboard and looking forward to working with such a reputable company. Their extensive experience makes a great partner continue to execute our international expansion and continued growth.” - Patrick Olsson, CEO, Findity.