Lighter Capital
| Industry | Revenue-based financing |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2010 |
| Headquarters | Seattle |
Number of employees | 20 |
| Website | lightercapital |
Lighter Capital is a revenue-based financing lender that specializes in providing financial capital to small technology companies.
Founded by Andy Sack,[1] a Seattle-area entrepreneur, Lighter Capital was one of the first lenders to use revenue-based financing to fund tech startups. Lighter Capital typically provides growth capital as royalty-based financing to early-stage tech companies based in the United States.[2][3] It is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.
Unlike private equity, venture capital and angel investors, Lighter Capital's revenue-based financing process provides growth capital to tech companies in the form of debt.[4] The company tranches financing across an investment period and looks for general revenue growth.
In 2017, the lender partnered with Intuit to launch a $15 million fund for developers who design apps for QuickBooks.[5]
Since 2010, Lighter Capital has backed more than 270 startup companies with more than 450 rounds of financing, totaling more than $200 million.[6]
In June 2019 Lighter Capital announced it was offering two more forms of debt: term loans and lines of credit. In January 2020, the firm secured access to $100 million in additional capital for lending to startups. As of 2020, Lighter Capital has provided over $200 million of financing to more than 350 companies.[7]
Lighter Capital opened operations in Canada and entered into collaboration with the National Australia Bank in 2020.[8][9]
In September 2020, Melissa Widner was appointed Chief Executive Officer.[10]
References
[edit]- ^ Savitz, Eric (4 January 2012). "Pulp Funding: An Alternative Way To Finance Startups". Forbes. Retrieved 4 December 2018.
- ^ Siacon, Aleanna (17 August 2018). "Forget Amazon: These Are the 10 Fastest-Growing Companies in Seattle".
- ^ Somerville, Heather (27 November 2015). "Lighter Capital raises $100 million fund to back tech startups". Reuters.
- ^ Mannes, John (7 July 2016). "Lighter Capital takes a different approach to startup financing".
- ^ Soper, Taylor (13 November 2017). "Lighter Capital partners with Intuit to launch $15M fund for QuickBooks developers".
- ^ Muhn, Julie (4 October 2018). "Lighter Capital Launches Capital Client Perks Program".
- ^ Wilhelm, Alex (23 January 2020). "Lighter Capital secures $100M to grow its equity-free financing business". TechCrunch. Retrieved 7 May 2021.
- ^ "Seattle-based 'alternative VC' firm Lighter Capital lays off more employees". GeekWire. 2020-07-17. Retrieved 2021-06-16.
- ^ Tacadena, Gerv. "Major strikes deal with fintech lender". www.brokernews.com.au. Retrieved 2021-06-16.
- ^ "Tech Moves: Lighter Capital names new CEO; Amazon exec joins Uber as CTO; and more". GeekWire. 2020-09-21. Retrieved 2021-06-16.