Lighter Capital Introduces Suite of Alternative Financing Solutions to Fund More Startups up to $3 Million

Leading Online Lender to Tech Startups Enhances Offerings with Lines of Credit and Term Loans

SEATTLE, WA, June 5, 2019 — Lighter Capital, the leading fintech lender to tech startups, announced today that it has launched new financing products to better match the capital needs of growing startups. To date, Lighter Capital has provided over $150 million in more than 500 rounds of financing to over 300 startups. The company has historically provided Revenue-Based Financing and has now broadened its portfolio to include lines of credit and term loans, designed to provide startups capital over time as they need it. Unlike most venture debt, startups do not need to have raised Venture Capital to qualify for funding.

“Startups have diverse funding needs and deserve diverse funding options – especially in times of growth when capital is critical,” said BJ Lackland, CEO of Lighter Capital. “Startups typically need to raise millions of dollars from VCs to qualify for loans and lines of credit. By leveraging our fintech lending platform, we can now provide bootstrapped and angel-backed companies with a full suite of funding options. As startups grow their financing needs change. Our goal is to provide up to $3 million per company through a mix of financing structures and amounts, matching a startup’s changing needs. No one else does this for startups that haven’t raised VC.”

Lighter Capital’s two new products complement the company’s historical Revenue-Based Financing product. These can be combined for a total of $3 million in funding:

1. Lighter Line of Credit – Startups have fluctuations in capital needs, to make essential payments like payroll or wait for a big customer payment. The Lighter Line of Credit is a revolving working capital line. It enables startups to draw and return capital numerous times, to even out their cash needs.

2. Lighter Term Loan - Provides startups growth capital in a traditional structure with predictable payments. Lighter Capital will also make forward commitments, giving startups the right to get additional capital for a period of time. For example, a startup could get a $500,000 loan today and a commitment from Lighter Capital to provide an additional $500,000 over the following six months.

The company recently released the first-ever Revenue-Based Financing industry report which details how Revenue-Based Financing has become the most popular form of alternative startup financing in recent years. Lighter Capital’s growth has accelerated quickly with this entrepreneur-friendly funding model, providing 300 rounds of financing in the past two years and capturing 72% of the Revenue-Based Financing market. This financing structure keeps an entrepreneur’s options open – with many going on to raise venture capital, including several with exists well over $300 million, and others intentionally remaining angel-backed or bootstrapped.

Lighter Capital’s fintech lending platform pulls in 6,500 data points to analyze startups quickly and reduce entrepreneurs’ time to raise funds by over 90%. The company uses proprietary algorithms to determine a credit rating and data science to predict a startup’s revenue growth, with 97% accuracy, on average. By using objective, data-driven practices, Lighter Capital provides $50K-$3MM in funding to a broad array of tech startups, promoting diversity of ideas, perspectives and leaders — ensuring that strong, creative thinkers have access to the resources they need, when they need them.