Fundbox, which leverages deep data analytics to accelerate cash flow and clear invoices for small businesses, has raised $17.5 million. The investment was led by Khosla Ventures with the participation of Ron Conway’s SV Angels, former Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit, former Thomson Reuters CEO Tom Glocer, former JP Morgan Chase head of strategy and e-commerce Jay Mandelbaum, Uber business SVP Emil Michael, Imperva Inc. (NYSE: ) CEO Shlomo Kramer, ISE chairman David Krell, and others.
The investment will be used to scale the data operations and product, increase marketing outreach efforts, expand the Fundbox San Francisco headquarters, and make additional strategic hires in the Bay Area. The company, which was founded by CEO Eyal Shinar and CTO Yuval Ariav, has its R&D offices are in Tel Aviv.
Shinar said, “We’ve identified an unprecedented opportunity to bring data-driven innovation to a critically underserved and broken market, focused initially on allowing small businesses to immediately clear outstanding invoices and improve cash flow by accelerating payments."
He added, “However, the vision behind our company is much larger, as our proprietary engine can dramatically disrupt and modernize entire industries built around analyzing data. We are starting with small business credit because this is where we can have a significant and immediate positive impact, but the future is boundless.”
Fundbox processes tens of thousands of invoices daily, offering small business owners the ability to fix their cash flow by advancing payments for unpaid invoices. This effectively eliminates the net plus 30, 60, 90-day problem from which so many small businesses suffer, a problem that inhibits growth. Unlike traditional credit companies or alternative factoring companies, Fundbox keeps customer control at the forefront of its product with an emphasis on simple user experience, clean design and total transparency. Unlike with other players Fundbox rewards customers who receive funds and repay them early, with refunds for early repayment and lower fees the more they use the product.
In order to use Fundbox, a small business owner or bookkeeper simply connects with one-click to their accounting and bookkeeping apps, including Quickbooks, Xero, or Freshbooks, on Fundbox.com.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 13, 2014
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