Uncapped, a small business lending startup, has raked in $26m in a funding round comprised of debt and equity.
The capital was led by Mouro Capital, the $400m successor fund of Santander InnoVentures. Other contributors including All Iron Ventures, Global Founders Capital, Seedcamp, and White Star Capital also participated.
A selection of angel investors were involved in the round, such as Transferwise co-founder and CEO Taavet Hinrikus, LendInvest co-founder Christian Faes.
This investment comes nine months after the company launched its services and comes after huge demand from European entrepreneurs, it claims.
Research from the British Business Bank prior to the lockdown claims that 73% of small business startups have turned their back on growth due to frustration with funding options available. Uncapped is hoping to change this and is using its fresh funding round to support 500 businesses over the next 12 months.
Through uncapped, businesses can access growth finance for a flat fee as low as 6% a day. There are no credit checks or business plans required, with the business owner simply connecting their existing sales and marketing accounts to Uncapped’s revenue prediction engine. The technology leverages data science to make a decision.
Monthly repayments are linked to the borrower’s revenues, so when a month has high sales there will be a larger repayment and if revenue is down the repayment is less.
Uncapped co-founder Asher Ismail said, “Uncapped was born out of frustrations I faced launching and running my first business. I didn’t want to take financing from the banks because they all wanted personal guarantees.
“Venture capital wasn’t ideal either as I didn’t want to lose equity, so I repeatedly missed out on growth opportunities. With this further funding Uncapped is ideally positioned to help hundreds of more businesses across the UK and Europe grow to their full potential.”
As part of the deal, Mouro Capital general partner Manuel Silva Martinez will join Uncapped’s board of directors.
Uncapped raised a £10m funding round last year to support its lending capabilities.
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