The first part of 2016 has been busy for us at Lighter Capital. We funded seven new clients and provided additional capital to two existing portfolio companies in January and February for a total of $2.7M in financings. The average loan size was $300K—well above our average loan amount of $250K. With additional capital, our entrepreneurs will be able to implement their growth strategy for 2016 and we can’t be more excited for them. Below are the seven new additions to the Lighter Capital family. Welcome!
Prometheus Research is a leading provider of research informatics solutions and data management services. In business since 1999, Prometheus serves eminent research institutions, has a great track record of project success, and fantastic testimonials from customers. The company’s software and best practices have been used to collect and distribute data from tens of thousands of participants, and expertise has been instrumental in the creation of emerging data standards, including the RexQL™ query language, the RexDB® informatics platform, and the National Database for Autism Research (NDAR) Global Unique Identifier (GUID). Prometheus is a trusted partner to the Yale University Child Study Center, the Marcus Autism Center, the Simons Foundation and other leading research institutions.
Circle Commerce, Inc. provides customizable order management and ERP software for e-commerce and multi-channel direct marketers. Circle Commerce focuses on mid-market companies, and beats out competition on customization, service, and pricing. Circle Commerce was selected as a Small Business Express participant by the State of Connecticut, and had been growing their revenue at a compound rate of 34% in the last three years!
TBX Employee Benefits offers a SaaS solution for medium to large businesses that provide a portal for their employees to manage their personal HR benefits. The employees can access educational materials to better understand their benefits. TBX’s software also provides back end analytics and reporting. The company has started offering additional upgrade packages to enhance the platform, including a feature allowing Company HR teams to aggregate data for Affordable Care Act reporting requirements.
SurveyLocal provides an intelligent software platform to help small businesses easily collect a large amount of feedback from their everyday customers. The company collects feedback via quick customer surveys, and uses that input to promote businesses across the web on third-party websites, as well as in local markets via their consumer network. See more in SurveyLocal’s funding announcement.
BoardBookit offers a board room empowerment platform designed to transform the way companies plan, create and manage board meetings as well as the way board members experience them. BoardBookit was developed based on input from administrators and board directors, and is designed to be affordable, secure and easy to use and implement. The company has also received funding from Innovation Works, the Ben Franklin Technology Partner of Southwestern PA and is supported by the Department of Community and Economic Development of Pennsylvania.
6Connex is a leader in the virtual environment space. Its 100% SaaS virtual destination platform is easy to use and deploy for companies large and small. More than 100 organizations rely on 6Connex, including Intuit, GE, Danaher, and US Office of Personnel Management. The company is headquartered in Pleasanton, California with offices in London and Shanghai.
ClearDB is a powerful, fault tolerant database-as-a-service in the cloud for MySQL powered applications. The company’s services are designed to ensure that their clients’ databases are available and secure, even if there’s an outage or natural disaster event. ClearDB’s clients include Fortune 500 companies such as Microsoft, Salesforce, and IBM. See more in ClearDB’s funding announcement.
Unlike a lot of other debt providers, we are funders of growth initiatives for our borrowers. Our RevenueLoan structure is uniquely positioned to help companies hire, develop, innovate and support the entrepreneurial goals of their founders. We’re looking forward to watching our new clients flourish in 2016, and we’re always on the lookout to find more tech entrepreneurs to fund.