Just Capital, a new digital funding platform, is on track to have lent £20m to online businesses within a few months.
Small businesses can apply for up to £1m in venture debt from Just Capital to be spent on either marketing or stock or both.
Just Capital uses an online application platform for businesses to request a loan. Length of repayment is flexible but Just Capital expects to be repaid within six months. Companies simply link up their online payment processor such as Stripe or Shopify or their ad platform such as Facebook and Just Capital uses that data to decide whether to fund or not.
Until recently, this kind of money, known as venture debt, where lenders carve out a revenue corridor from future sales, was only available to big companies.
Just Capital’s funding per company starts at just £5,000.
The application process takes minutes, said Just Capital, and a small business can get money in its account within 24 hours. Funding is interest free. Just Capital charges a flat fee starting at 6 per cent and is repaid through revenue share over six months.
The 10-strong London-based team behind the revenue finance platform are led by CEO Daniel Lipinski, founder of business lending platform Credit Digital, while the head of risk is former Market Invoice head of loans James Auty, with engineers gathered from Funding Circle.
Daniel Lipinski, founder and CEO, said: “We get to see everything that’s coming to your company through those transactions. By letting us connect to your payment processors, that lets us see how you’re performing.”
Through connecting to your marketing platforms, Just Capital can see how well ads are doing and whether they are justifying more money spending on them.
Lipinski said: “The more data points you can share with us, the more we’re likely to lend. There’s a direct correlation between the two.”
Although lenders such as PayPal offer cash advances against future transactions, Just Capital connects to all your payment processors as well as ad platforms, not just the one.
Last year, rival venture debt provider Uncapped launched offering a similar service, having raised £10m in finance.
>See also: Uncapped closes first deals ahead of second fundraise next year
Lipinski added: “As a second time founder, I know the frustration of giving away equity in order to grow, when all I needed was cash for marketing expenses and inventory. For entrepreneurs, raising money through traditional routes becomes a full-time job. It’s a game we all play, but it’s not beneficial to founders or VC partners. Just Capital was born out of this frustration. With our platform, funding is simple, quick and easy and founders can focus on their real job: growing their business.”
