Focal’s Post

🚀 Exciting News! 🚀 We're thrilled to announce that Cents has just secured $40M in Series B funding! 🎉 This incredible milestone is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our amazing team and the unwavering support of our investors. With this new investment, we're poised to accelerate our mission of transforming the way Laundromat owners grow, manage, and understand their businesses. It is crazy to think that after only a few years, 1 out of 14 Laundromats in the US are using the Cents platform to power their business. We are incredibly grateful for every customer who has believed in and supported us from day 1. We will use this investment to accelerate the delivery of best-in-class products to support you. A huge thank you to our investors for believing in our vision and to our users for your trust and support. The journey is just beginning, and we can’t wait to share more exciting developments with you all. Here’s to the future and the incredible possibilities ahead! 🌟 Read more about our Series B funding and what’s next for Cents: Cents Announces $40M Series B Funding #Funding #SeriesB #Fintech #Innovation #Cents

Vestwell Raises $125 Series D — PRBuzz.co — The preempted #round will fast-track Vestwell's #mission to #transform #Americans #access to savings NEW #YORK #Dec #21 #2023 Vestwell, the leading employer and #individual #savings #platform has raised its #Series #D round, totaling #125 #million The #large preempted #equity financing is a testament to the conviction these #investors have in Vestwell's trajectory and its #future the #funding round also firmly establishes Vestwell as one of the #biggest #US funding #success #stories of 2023 in the fintech and SaaS sectors. Moreover, as Vestwell was already poised to reach profitability, the new funding allows for further accelerated growth opportunity focus and ensures the company is fully capitalized for the future. The round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. Existing investors Fin Capital, Primary Venture Partners, and FinTech Collective, and newcomers Blue Owl and HarbourVest, also participated. "We are deeply impressed by Vestwell for its groundbreaking infrastructure-first approach to solving the systemic savings problem in the US," said Justin Overdorff, Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners. As part of the round, Lightspeed's lead fintech Partner, Justin Overdorff, has joined Vestwell's board of directors. With a background in business development, operations, and VC across SaaS and fintech, Overdorff's product-first mindset has seen him help businesses, including Stripe and Alloy, to reshape their industries. Logan Allin will remain a board director since co-leading Vestwell's Series C. He brings deep expertise in entrepreneurial advisory, having worked closely with scaling fintechs in his role at SoFi Ventures before founding Fin Capital, whose portfolio companies include Circle, DailyPay, Greenlight, and SumUp. Vestwell will use the funding to continue its rapid expansion and fulfill its mission to bring savings solutions to more businesses and individuals across the country, as demand reaches unprecedented levels. In particular, the move will support small and emerging businesses that have benefited from regulatory tailwinds

Reposting this with immense pride in the journey PostEx has embarked on. Our decision to invest in PostEx as our first direct investment in Pakistan was driven by our unwavering belief in Omer and his outstanding team. Their ability to tackle critical market gaps with innovative solutions has been nothing short of impressive. PostEx is not just addressing a significant need within Pakistan’s SME landscape, but it is also laying the groundwork for a broader, global impact. Omer’s vision and relentless drive to create a truly international company resonate with our own belief that the best ideas transcend borders. Excited to see PostEx expanding into new markets, starting with Saudi Arabia. This is just the beginning, and we are here to support every step of the way. #innovation #fintech #SMEs #globalgrowth

🚨 𝗕𝗼𝗹𝘁 & 𝗙𝗮𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝗦𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗹𝗲 𝗟𝗮𝘄𝘀𝘂𝗶𝘁 𝗔𝗺𝗶𝗱 𝗕𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗺 𝗧𝘂𝗿𝗺𝗼𝗶𝗹! 💼⚖️ After months of tension, Bolt and Fanatics have quietly settled their legal dispute. Fanatics had sued Bolt over claims that the payments provider failed to meet financial obligations tied to their partnership 🎯. Bolt reportedly paid $𝟭𝟮 𝗺𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻 into a marketing fund but was sued for an additional $𝟱𝟬 𝗺𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻. Fanatics claimed Bolt used their partnership to secure other business deals and boost investor confidence 💰📊. Meanwhile, Bolt is navigating boardroom chaos, a new $𝟮𝟬𝟬 𝗺𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗳𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗿𝗮𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 attempt, and a possible return of founder Ryan Breslow as CEO. While the lawsuit may be behind them, the drama at Bolt seems far from over! 😬🔥 #Bolt #Fanatics #FinTech #Lawsuit #TechNews #Payments #BoardroomDrama #Startups #BusinessUpdates #Leadership

One of my regrets as a founder was the circumstances and the manner in which we raised our Seed/Pre-Series A round of funding around 2016/17. We were driven by what was happening around us. Startup valuations were crazy during that period, and we got lured by it. We had a decent product and were doing alright, so we wanted to raise funds quickly and scale. But we didn't know enough. After raising money, we had to pivot from a B2C to a B2B model, and since there was so much experimentation happening, we didn’t really know where to put the money. But more than that, it was the process of pitching and convincing VCs that I hated. Every VC we pitched had a different take on our business and which metrics would make us attractive to them. So if someone asked us to increase the number of transactions, we’d direct all our efforts into it. If someone said increase GMV, we’d again run after that. Which was an absolute blunder from our end. We’d change our pitch for every investor based on what they liked! Moreover, none of them gave us exact feedback. In hindsight, I know they didn’t understand enough. And I see founders falling for it even today. We should have simply done what was right for business instead of chasing VC metrics mindlessly. In business, there’s a simple rule - if you have a product/service which is solving for a major pain point, people are happily paying for it, and the number of such people is growing with time, then you’re doing well. And every entrepreneur should be hyper-focused on doing just that. That’s what leads to revenue, growth, funding, and all the other good things. #VCinvestments #Goldrush #Customerfocused #Problemsolving #Valueproposition

Aven recently raised a $142M Series D at a $1 billion valuation. Khosla Ventures and General Catalyst led the round with participation from existing investors including Caffeinated Capital, Electric Capital, Founders Fund, and The General Partnership. Aven grew ~3x over the last year and claims to have saved customers $100M in interest. Aven also launched an advisor product that has 160,000 members but there’s limited information for this product. Aven offers a HELOC (Home Equity Line of Credit) Credit Card that combines the benefits of a traditional credit card with the advantages of a home equity line of credit. Product Details: - Credit Line Amount: up to $250,000 - Annual fee: None (and no notarization fee) - Interest Rate Range: 7.99% - 15.49% (variable) - Max APR: 18% - Rewards: 2% cashback, 7% on travel booked through Aven travel portal - Autopay discount: 0.25% - Late fees: $29 - Approval time: as less as 5 mins - Partner bank: Coastal Community Bank - Network: Visa Portfolio: - Total cardholders: 33,000 - Total Credit Line: $1.5B - Based on this, the average credit line amount is $45,454.54 (~$50,000). - Outstanding balance: $525M - Avg Interest Rate: 11.74% - Annualized Gross Revenue: $525M * 11.74% = $61.63M Assuming the cost of capital is 7.5% (SOFR + 2%), Aven nets 4.25%. If Aven is netting 1% servicing fee, their total net revenue is $27.56M = $525M * (4.25% + 1%) At the current revenue run rate, Aven is valued at ~40x net revenue. For comparison, below is the TTM revenue and market cap for a few public companies: - SoFi: $3.21 billion (revenue), $7.90 billion (market cap), 2.46x - Onemain: $4.28 billion (revenue), $6.13 billion (market cap), 1.43x - Robinhood: $2.07 billion (revenue), $20.57 billion (market cap), 9.9x - Upstart: $538.43 million (revenue), $2.44 billion (market cap), 4.53x - Ally: $8.10 billion (revenue), $12.72 billion (market cap), 1.57x Additional services Aven could provide: - Auto-backed Cards: Aven can also offer cards backed by cars. These loans would be smaller but the customer will be on the lower end of the credit spectrum. - Mortgage Refinancing: Aven’s current relationships could be a way to offer mortgage refinancing (rates are expected to come down and mortgage refinancing is expected to grow). - Insurance and other home ownership products: Aven could sell high margin products needed by homeowners like insurance. - Student Loan Refinancing: Many customers may have student loans that Aven or their partners could refinance. - Home Services Subscriptions: New options for homeowners could include a concierge for their home services. It can be a marketplace of vetted providers for home services and improvements. Aven is building a strong and captive customer base. Once it has enough customers, it can sell multiple financial products and continue to increase the LTV of its customer base. Higher retention and strong cross-sell will define the success of the business.

2024 started off fast (in a good way) and I am so happy to say that Green Book Global was recently accepted into the “Future of Tech is Inclusive” program sponsored by Goodie Nation and Amex Ventures In just one week I learned so much about the amazing work that Joey Womack and Goodie Nation is doing to help close the “Relationship Gap” with diverse founders and also the impact and history that Amex Ventures has had across various segments. Specifically in the travel space, did you you know that American Express invented the first travelers check? When our speaker mentioned that during one of our sessions, I immediately went to Google to confirm (you know I like to fact check) and sure enough, there was American Express as the inventor (specifically Marcellus Flemming Berry who was an employee of Amex). American Express also started travel and tour services back in the early 1900s (had no idea!) Also, just by Day 4 of the program, we were already able to test our investor readiness by doing a mock pitch to Amex Ventures. It was super helpful to receive feedback from a VC lens but also to confirm if what I am pitching/saying is being received as intended. There is also this tool that Goodie Nation uses to score your progress as a founder after that investor readiness session that is just 🙌🏾 🤯 And this was just the first week! As a FYI, being part of the “Future of Tech is Inclusive” program doesn’t gurantee investment or partnership with Amex Ventures (also doesn’t rule it out). However, what it does gurantee is knowledge and ability to better equipped to know how to work with large brands like Amex. And that in itself is super powerful!! So super excited and grateful to the Amex Ventures team (Jennifer Cozen Ope Runsewe Oliver Ginns Mona Pezeshki Alyssa Smith Kevin Weber ) and Goodie Nation for this opportunity and looking forward to more to come! PS: got another post about Goodie Nation coming because it is 🔥🔥🔥 and too much to discuss in one post!

Congrats to the Revive team for the latest fundraise led by Equal Ventures, as well as the new brand! I’ve had the honor of working with Allison Lee (Founder/CEO) and team for almost six years as their first institutional investor. My gosh, it’s been an incredible–and at times harrowing–journey… ‘Revive’ is such an appropriate name for this company, on multiple fronts. First, it describes the core business well, where this platform helps large retail apparel brands to upcycle garments and deadstock into new products, thereby substantially reducing apparel waste. But it also accurately describes Allison Lee herself. Allison is one of the most resilient humans I’ve ever met, and she’s gone through hell and back to create this outstanding company. When we were first introduced to Allison in 2018 (thanks Bebe Kim for that intro!), Allison was a solo founder experimenting with mall kiosks that provided on-demand hemming services for retail apparel consumers. Over the years, Hemster (the name of the co back then) scaled up to become a substantial business, with her own warehouses and staff to handle hemming for top apparel brands throughout the US. But then the pandemic happened. Brand clients budgets collapsed, along with her business model, and Allison had to reduce her team down to just one person. Herself. This was a dark time. I remember reaching out and attempting to check in with her during a six-month period where she was at her loneliest as a founder. She pretty much locked herself in her apartment, mulling new directions for her company by herself. But she figured it out. In 2021, she saw that the consumer retail market was shifting as Gen Z was strengthening their purchasing power. This new generation of shoppers were more climate and sustainability conscious, and wanted to hold big brands’ feet to the fire for products that conformed to their values. Allison saw an opportunity to retool Hemster into a top platform to help facilitate upcycled products for apparel companies. And it worked! Allison breathed new life into her company and business has been growing quickly ever since. Her business’ thesis is even stronger and bigger than the one she initially launched with. Beyond her being a skilled founder and operator, Allison is also a fantastic human being. She is relentless and un-killable as a founder. And also so warm, kind, and present as a friend. I’m grateful to call her a friend today, as well as a role model. Allison’s journey is still in the early days with Revive, and no doubt she is going to build something that has a huge impact on this world. Hustle Fund is nothing but grateful that she said YES to us, and allowed us to be part of this amazing and inspiring journey. Congrats again, Allison and team!

🌟 TREET RAISES $10M IN SERIES A FUNDING!!!! 🌟 We raised $10M in Series A funding led by Two Sigma Ventures with participation from other lead investors: First Round Capital, Bling Capital, and Techstars. To celebrate, we are sharing insight gathered from launching 150+ brands into resale. In this Branded Resale Report, you will find key takeaways on: 🧐 What makes a brand fit for resale? 🏆 Key tactics to leverage success with your resale program (including brand examples!). ♻️ Treet thrifters by the numbers, showing how resale is driving customer retention and loyalty. At the end of the day, Treet’s mission is to ensure every item created lives its longest life, and this new capital goes a long way toward helping Treet achieve that mission. Read the full report linked in our comments. #brandedresale #SeriesAFunding #startupnews

Motive Ventures: Introducing The Payments Wheel Motive Ventures takes a holistic approach to investing in #payments #innovation. The firm has created a schema that categorizes and highlights the key components of the payments value chain, spanning from core infrastructure to POS financing solutions. Motive Ventures acknowledges the limitations inherent in any attempt to distill a complex ecosystem and welcomes feedback and thoughts. As a starting point, the firm divides the payments landscape into four main sectors: Commerce Enablement, Rails, Payment Operations & Financing, and Security, Risk & Regulatory. From a venture capital perspective, Motive Ventures observes significantly more innovation across most sectors, with the exception of Rails. In Rails, much of the infrastructure has reached sufficient maturity to attract interest from private equity firms or strategic acquirers.