Lighter Capital Raises $130 Million for Revenue-Based Financing

Lighter Capital Raises $130 Million for Revenue-Based Financing
  • Lighter Capital raised a $130 million credit facility.
  • The company will use the facility to continue funding early-stage companies.
  • Lighter Capital recently surpassed the milestone of distributing $350 million in growth capital via more than 1,000 rounds of financing.

Revenue-based financing fintech Lighter Capital has closed a $130 million credit facility this week. Today’s funds come from ATLAS SP Partners, i80, the Victorian Government, and iPartners.

The credit facility will be used to fund early-stage companies, something Lighter Capital has been doing since its launch in 2010. In fact, the company recently surpassed the milestone of having distributed $350 million in growth capital to more than 500 startups across the U.S., Canada, and Australia through more than 1,000 rounds of financing.

Lighter Capital’s revenue-based financing model helps startups that offer SaaS, technology services, subscription services, and digital media to access up to $4 million in growth capital without selling equity.

“Lighter Capital’s model is so innovative — a debt provider that’s essentially a VC partner,” said Qnary Founder and Chairman Bant Breen. “We get the financial rigor, network, and strategic guidance that a VC would give us, and that’s been incredibly helpful.”

Recently, the Seattle-based company has opened new offices in Australia, unveiled more non-dilutive funding options, and launched an online networking community for startup CEOs.

“After more than a decade in business, 2022 was our best year in the company’s history,” said company CEO Melissa Widner. “It’s a great privilege to help founders achieve their dreams on their terms by providing funding that doesn’t require selling equity or giving up control.”

Lighter Capital and other alternative financing startups are experiencing a moment in the fintech spotlight. That can be attributed to two factors. First, because VC funding is in decline, it is difficult to obtain equity financing. Additionally, banks have started to tighten their lending standards because of economic uncertainty and decreased collateral values.

An early Finovate alum, Lighter Capital’s most recent Finovate demo was at FinovateFall 2013, where then-CEO BJ Lackland demonstrated how the company’s small business lending platform leveraged CRM data to predict a borrower’s future performance.


Photo by Justin

Customer Experience Specialist Inbenta Acquires Digital Adoption Platform Horizn

Customer Experience Specialist Inbenta Acquires Digital Adoption Platform Horizn
  • AI-powered customer experience specialist Inbenta has acquired digital adoption platform Horizn.
  • Inbenta will integrate Horizn’s embeddable interactive product demos into its platform.
  • Horizn has won Finovate’s Best of Show award five times, most recently at FinovateFall last September.

AI-powered customer experience platform Inbenta has acquired digital adoption platform Horizn. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Inbenta CEO Melissa Solis referred to the acquisition as part of the company’s commitment to helping businesses lower customer service costs, grow sales, and enhance the customer experience in general. Inbenta’s platform leverages natural language processing, neuro-symbolic AI, and Generative AI across four digital communications modules – Chatbot, Knowledge, Search, and Messenger. These modules enable the platform to deliver comprehensive, configurable solutions for businesses in verticals from financial services and ecommerce to telecom and utilities.

The integration of Horizn’s technology, in particular the company’s embeddable interactive product demos, will enhance Inbenta’s platform in a number of ways. In addition to making employee training more effective and further enhancing the customer experience, the integration will also help reduce agent escalation. Horizn’s technology has reduced agent escalations in favor of self-service in 80% of cases.

“Everyone knows how helpful and time-saving a tutorial can be when presented in an easy to understand, visual format,” Solis said. “At Inbenta, customer experience is at the center of everything we do – it was only natural that product demo capabilities should be included within our customer experience platform.”

Founded in 2012, Horizn has partnered with more than 40 financial institutions around the world. This includes some of the largest banks like Wells Fargo and RBC, as well as regional and community banks. A Finovate alum since 2017, Horizn has won Best of Show on five different occasions. The Toronto, Canada-based company most recently took home top honors with its demo at FinovateFall last September.

“By acquiring Horizn, Inbenta has expanded the number of customer experience touchpoints that it can offer, setting itself apart from the industry’s text-reliant majority,” Horizn co-founder and CEO Janice Diner said. “The entire Horizn team is excited about this next stage of impact and innovation and looks forward to integrating itself into Inbenta’s leading customer experience platform.”

Post-acquisition, Diner will take a new position as Inbenta’s Head of Marketing.


Photo by Scott Webb

FinovateFall 2023 Sneak Peek: Bud

FinovateFall 2023 Sneak Peek: Bud

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall in New York on September 11 and 12. Register today and save your spot.

Bud makes financial decisions simple by turning transactional data into rich customer insights. It enables lenders to get an accurate picture of a borrower’s income, expenditure and credit in realtime.

Features

  • Hyper-personalized insights fueled by generative AI
  • Strategic, smart segment growth unleashed
  • Efficient decision-making grounded in realtime data

Why it’s great

Supercharge personalization, deposits and growth with generative AI for financial services.

Presenter

Edward Masaveckas, CEO & Founder
Maslaveckas is CEO and Co-Founder at data intelligence fintech Bud Financial (Bud). Under his leadership, Bud has grown to some 120 people and secured more than $100M in investment.
LinkedIn

FinovateFall 2023 Sneak Peek: Jaid

FinovateFall 2023 Sneak Peek: Jaid

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall in New York on September 11 and 12. Register today and save your spot.

Jaid is a powerful artificial intelligence SaaS platform that drives intelligent automation of diverse business communications, increasing the speed of resolution to client inquiries.

Features

  • Increases speed of resolution by up to 95%
  • Reduces employee attrition rates by up to 50%
  • Transforms critical data from diverse communications into meaningful actionable business insights

Why it’s great

Jaid delivers solutions, not AI tools, empowering teams to focus on higher-value tasks and what matters most.

Presenters

Dan Kramer, CEO
Kramer has 30 years+ experience in driving strategy and execution in financial services, including previous roles at BNYMellon Asset Services, JP Morgan, and Calastone.
LinkedIn

Ken Dummitt, CRO
Dummitt has 30 years+ experience in global enterprise B2B software sales with a proven record in driving revenue and expansion at high-growth technology companies.
LinkedIn

FinovateFall 2023 Sneak Peek: interface.ai

FinovateFall 2023 Sneak Peek: interface.ai

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall in New York on September 11 and 12. Register today and save your spot.

interface.ai’s Sphere is a generative AI-powered multimodal ChatGPT-like AI assistant for financial institutions. It provides both customers and employees with unparalleled banking experiences.

Features

  • Universal channel to enhance customer and employee experiences
  • Personalized and proactive guidance to achieve financial wellness
  • Increased revenue via upsell & cross-sell

Why it’s great

ChatGPT-like universal channel that replaces online mobile banking with an AI assistant providing intelligent guidance, innovative plugins, and personalized AI assistance.

Presenters

Srinivas Njay, Founder & CEO
Srinivas, Founder & CEO at interface.ai, has 10+ years of experience in AI research and led a digital strategy from scratch for a financial institution to scale it to several billion in assets.
LinkedIn

Bruce Gillooly, Sr. Sales Engineer
Gillooly has 30 years of problem-solving experience in banking. He has led teams and understands the pain points organizations face from both a member-facing & employee-facing standpoint.
LinkedIn

FinovateFall 2023 Sneak Peek: Bits of Stock

FinovateFall 2023 Sneak Peek: Bits of Stock

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall in New York on September 11 and 12. Register today and save your spot.

Bits of Stock enables community financial institutions and credit unions to reward in fractional shares of stock. Their purpose is to empower their customers to engage and build loyalty with younger generations.

Features

  • Engage the next generation of account holders
  • Establish the easiest path to financial wellness
  • Embed directly into current digital banking experiences

Why it’s great

Bits of Stock wants users to imagine if they had the opportunity to start earning stocks as a reward in the brands they loved when they turned 16 . . .

Presenters

Arash Asady, CEO & Co-Founder
Asady is a relentless and gritty entrepreneur who holds no punches. He’s a USMC Veteran, recovering Wall Street derivatives trader, and boxing aficionado.
LinkedIn

Steve Bishop, EVP & COO (OMB Bank)
Bishop joined OMB in September 2020, overseeing its physical and digital operations. Preceding OMB, Bishop had two separate stints at Jack Henry & Associates, most recently as Director of Client Services.
LinkedIn

FinovateFall 2023 Sneak Peek: MacroMicro

FinovateFall 2023 Sneak Peek: MacroMicro

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall in New York on September 11 and 12. Register today and save your spot.

MacroMicro offers premier macroeconomic investment platform services with over 350,000 registered users globally.

Features

  • Data-driven services with data aggregated
  • AI-driven services to help navigate and analyze
  • User-driven services with community and user-generated content

Why it’s great

Investors and decision-makers easily can make informed decisions through interactive and clear automatically updated charts on MacroMicro’s platform.

Presenters

Rachel Chen, CEO & Founder
Chen has 10+ years of experience in financial market analysis. She’s the Founder and CEO of MacroMicro, the first macro investing platform in Asia. Chen holds a Master of Economics degree from the University of British Columbia in Canada.
LinkedIn

Emilia Wei, Global Project Manager

FinovateFall 2023 Sneak Peek: Zero Bank Design Factory

FinovateFall 2023 Sneak Peek: Zero Bank Design Factory

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall in New York on September 11 and 12. Register today and save your spot.

Zero Bank Design Factory is the system development company building Minna Bank’s core system and the first developer in Japan to build a core banking system on the cloud.

Features

  • Digital Native: Fully digital workflow & process
  • BaaS Native: FAPI grade open-API platform
  • API Native: Plug-and-play

Why it’s great

Zero Bank offers a new generation of fully automated cloud-based digital banking systems.

Presenters

Kenichi Nagayoshi, CEO & COO, Zero Bank Design Factory and CEO, Minna Bank
Nagayoshi has over 10 years’ experience in the corporate planning division for banking corporate strategy at Fukuoka Bank and has worked for mergers with other banks from the initial stage.

Quan Yuan, Chief Strategy Officer Manager

FinovateFall 2023 Sneak Peek: eSelf.AI

FinovateFall 2023 Sneak Peek: eSelf.AI

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall in New York on September 11 and 12. Register today and save your spot.

eSelf.AI’s virtual agents qualify leads, converse with them in real time, and create an innovative and efficient user journey.

Features

  • Improve marketing ROI by qualifying leads better than a regular form
  • Create positive user experience with a human-like experience
  • Customize per use case

Why it’s great

eSelf’s solution is based on advanced generative AI models, enabling creativity and variety in content while making sure nothing inappropriate or incorrect is mentioned.

Presenters

Alan Bekker, Co-Founder & CEO
Bekker is the Co-Founder of voca.ai (acq. by SNAP, Best of Show winner at FinovateEurope 2019) and former head of AI at SNAP. He’s an HBS Alumni, Forbes 30 under 30, and has a PhD in AI.
LinkedIn

Eylon Shoshan, Co-Founder & CTO
Shoshan is an experienced AI entrepreneur specializing in NLP, holding an M.Sc. degree from the Technion. He’s a former Captain in IDF Cyber Security unit and 2020 Israeli Defense Award recipient.
LinkedIn

FinovateFall Best of Show Winners: Fundraising, Acquisitions, New Partnerships, and More!

FinovateFall Best of Show Winners: Fundraising, Acquisitions, New Partnerships, and More!

The only thing more exciting than being chosen to demo your latest innovation at a Finovate conference is winning the accolades our attendees and taking home a Best of Show award. With FinovateFall right around the corner, we wanted to take a look at the companies that won Best of Show at last year’s event and give you the latest on what they’ve been up to in the year since.

Remember that early bird savings for FinovateFall – September 11 through 13 – end this weekend! Visit our FinovateFall registration hub and save your spot today!


Debbie

  • HQ: Miami, Florida, U.S.
  • Founded: 2021
  • CEO: Frida Leibowitz
Left to right: Frida Leibowitz, CEO | Rachel Lauren, COO

Demoed its technology that leverages behavioral psychology and rewards to help users pay off debt faster. Demo video.

Latest update

  • Secured seed funding from Geek Ventures.

Horizn

  • HQ: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
  • Founded: 2012
  • CEO: Janice Diner
Left to right: Horizn’s Colm Bermingham, Sr. Director Sales | Steve Frook, CRO

Demoed its platform that helps financial institutions maximize their investments in digital technology. Demo video.

Latest update

  • Acquired by conversational AI company Inbenta.

LemonadeLXP

  • HQ: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
  • Founded: 2021
  • CEO: John Findlay
 Lemonade CEO John Findlay

Demoed its digital growth platform that helps financial institutions and fintechs turn staff into digital customer service experts. Demo video.

Latest update

  • Partnered with Newburyport Bank to facilitate staff and customer transition to digital banking.

Quilo

  • HQ: New York City, New York, U.S.
  • Founded: 2020
  • CEO: Boris Fuzayloff
Left to right: Don Shafer, Co-founder & Chief Evangelist | Boris Fuzayloff, Co-founder & CEO

Demoed its technology that empowers lenders to syndicate individual personal loans at the time of underwriting. Demo video.

Latest update


Stratyfy

  • HQ: New York City, New York, U.S.
  • Founded: 2017
  • CEO: Laura Kornhauser
Left to right: Dmitry Lesnik, Chief Data Scientist | Laura Kornhauser, CEO and Co-Founder

Demoed its technology that helps FIs leverage AI-based decision making to boost access to financial services. Demo video.

Latest update

  • Teamed up with Beneficial State Foundation to help combat racial disparities in lending.

Themis

  • HQ: New York City, New York, U.S.
  • Founded: 2021
  • CEO: Neepa Patel
Themis’ Founder and CEO Neepa Patel

Demoed its collaboration platform to help support and encourage partnerships between banks and fintechs. Demo video.

Latest update

  • Named a finalist in multiple categories including “Startup of the Year” by the U.S. Fintech Awards.

FICO and LigaData Bring Decision-as-a-Service to Telcos

FICO and LigaData Bring Decision-as-a-Service to Telcos
  • FICO and LigaData have partnered on a decision-as-a-service tool.
  • The two will make the new capabilities available to telecommunications firms in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.
  • The decision-as-a-service solutions suite includes mobile lending, price optimization, collections optimization, subscriber segmentation, and fraud detection for communications service providers.

Data and analytics firm FICO and big data analytics company LigaData have come together in a move to bring decision-as-a-service capabilities to telecommunications firms in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.

The two California-based companies will offer solutions that leverage data to help telcos increase revenues, decrease costs, and expand their offerings. Tools included in the decision-as-a-service solutions suite are mobile lending, price optimization, collections optimization, subscriber segmentation, and fraud detection for communications service providers.

“Together we plan to also help communications service providers grant loans in emerging markets, making it easier for consumers while increasing the digitization of the economy,” said FICO Vice President of Global Partners & Alliances Alexandre Graff.

FICO and LigaData envision that the tool will help telcos add new revenue streams and ultimately expand financial inclusion in emerging markets. “Our partnership with FICO will give communications service providers new tools to expand and compete in a data-driven marketplace,” explained LigaData CEO Bassel Ojjeh. “In addition, we will be bringing to market new solutions that can help communications service providers serve the large number of unbanked and underbanked communities in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.”

LigaData’s name follows the naming convention of major soccer teams such as Bundesliga, La Liga, and Liga MX and is a reference to the company’s league of data experts. LigaData offers two main products, Data Fabric, which helps telcos leverage data better understand their customers by breaking down silos, and Flare, which serves as a decisioning engine that breaks down the data to provide operational and subscriber insights. These solutions are used by over 30 mobile network operators, supporting over 350 million subscribers around the world.

Founded in 1956 and headquartered in California, FICO offers decisioning tools used by more than 650 clients, including nine of the top 10 U.S. banks and eight of the top 10 EMEA banks. The company was recently named Best Technology Provider for Data Analytics at the 2022 Credit Awards, and was identified as a leader in The Forrester Wave: AI Decisioning Platforms, Q2 2023 report.


Photo by Ketut Subiyanto

Cybercrime Analytics Platform SpyCloud Raises $110 Million in Series D Funding

Cybercrime Analytics Platform SpyCloud Raises $110 Million in Series D Funding
  • Cybercrime analytics platform SpyCloud raised $110 million in Series D funding last week.
  • The funding will help the company accelerate innovation in key use cases, as well as grow its database of recaptured data.
  • Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Austin, Texas, SpyCloud won Best of Show in its Finovate debut in 2017.

Cybercrime analytics platform company SpyCloud has secured a $110 million growth round commitment of primary and secondary capital. The round, a Series D, was led by Riverwood Capital and featured participation from Silverton Partners. New valuation information was not provided. The investment takes the company’s total equity funding to more than $168 million, according to Crunchbase.

SpyCloud offers technology that enables the discovery and recapture of data from the Dark Web in order to better protect businesses from identity-based cyberattacks. Cybercriminals use these stolen employee credentials and consumer session data to attack businesses, individuals, and networks. SpyCloud’s approach to fighting cybercrime differs from traditional threat intelligence strategies by offering a credential monitoring and alert service that directly and proactively finds and recovers stolen assets from threat actors and other sources.

To date, SpyCloud has recaptured more than 450 billion assets, more than 31 billion passwords, and more than 33 billion email addresses. The company’s most recent platform enhancement, unveiled in January, provides what it calls “Post-Infection Remediation.” This protocol gives companies a framework to reset application credentials and invalidate session cookies in the wake of a cyberattack or breach.

In a statement, SpyCloud listed a number of ways the new capital will help fuel the company’s growth. The funding, for example, will enable SpyCloud to accelerate innovation across a number of use cases, including consumer risk and enterprise protection. The company will also be able to grow its database of recaptured malware assets, further develop its analytic capabilities, and add to its list of integrations. The platform is currently integrated with Active Director, Okta, and Tines.

“For the last seven years, we have proven that reacting quickly to identity and authentication exposures is the crucial factor in stopping the cycle of cybercrime,” SpyCloud CEO and co-founder Ted Ross said. “As authentication methods improve, businesses need to adjust their defenses to keep up with criminals’ new behavior. SpyCloud allows you to do just that – and we will continue to illuminate and resolve the most critical risks facing security teams today, stopping attacks they haven’t been able to see coming.”

SpyCloud won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateFall in 2017. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, the company was founded in 2016. More than 500 corporations – including half of the Fortune 10 – leverage SpyCloud’s technology to combat ransomware, account takeover, session hijacking, online fraud, and other cybercrimes.


Photo by Aleksandar Pasaric