Small Tech Businesses in Colorado Scaling Up with Revenue-Based Financing from Lighter Capital

SEATTLE – April 7, 2014 – Lighter Capital, a leading pioneer of revenue-based financing, today announced that it has provided growth funding to three emerging technology companies in Colorado, including Envisiontel (Broomfield, CO), Influence Technologies (Denver, CO), and YogaDownload (Denver, CO). These investments, totaling $500,000, expand Lighter Capital’s footprint in one of the fastest growing tech markets in the country – and give further rise to a lending model that has emerged as an alternative to equity-based venture funding.

“More and more tech entrepreneurs are discovering the benefits of revenue-based financing," said BJ Lackland, CEO of Lighter Capital. "Banks won’t fund small tech companies. And angels and venture capitalists take significant equity, seizing ownership and control from the entrepreneurs. Revenue-based financing is the best of both worlds – growth capital without dilution or loss of control. Entrepreneurs seeking quick capital to boost sales and marketing, or launch a new product, shouldn't have to sell 20-50% of their company to angels and VCs.”

Lighter Capital provides $50,000 to $1 million in Revenue-Based Financing, and typically invests in software, SaaS, and tech services companies looking to accelerate sales, marketing or product development efforts.

Influence Technologies, which has developed a next-generation online video platform for the enterprise, secured $250,000 in financing from Lighter Capital based on its solid revenue history and potential for future growth.

“Early on we explored various types of capital sources from banks and VCs,” said Jeff Swaim, Founder and Tribe Leader at Influence Technologies. “We discovered banks don’t lend money and VC’s were pretty interested in running the show. Lighter Capital was exactly what they represented – a lighter process. We closed our deal in less than 6 weeks – from initial introduction to ink on the paper.”

Envisiontel, which secured $150,000 from Lighter Capital, develops cloud-based subscription software that lets customers automate the tedious tasks associated with managing student access to online training materials.

“As a software vendor, Envisontel was in a unique financing position,” said Matt Lee, Founder and CEO of Envisiontel. “We needed to add some headcount in order to grow, but wanted to maintain control in order to fine-tune our business model. Lighter Capital offered a solution that was perfect for us. By paying back our loan as a percentage of monthly revenue, their model gave us the capital we needed with the control and flexibility we desired.”

Revenue-based financing is uniquely structured to match the ebb and flow of small business. Loan payments adjust in proportion to revenue, and there’s no loss of control or restrictive financial covenants.

“With our first round of funding from Lighter Capital we were able to achieve 95% growth in the span of a year,” said Jamie Kent, Founder and CEO of YogaDownload – who twice funded her online yoga studio with Lighter Capital. “Now, with the addition of a second round of funding from Lighter Capital, the sky is the limit.”

For more information about Lighter Capital, or to apply for financing, visit www.lightercapital.com.