- CircleUp Credit Advisors (CCA) recently announced that it raised more than $200 million to support emerging consumer brands with access to non-dilutive working capital financing
CircleUp Credit Advisors (CCA) — a division of the investment platform CircleUp (founded by Ryan Caldbeck and Rory Eakin) recently announced that it raised over $200 million to support emerging consumer brands with access to non-dilutive working capital financing.
The investors participating in the fund include Michigan Retirement Systems, Pacific Life Insurance Company, and other notable investors. Plus a financing facility was led by Community Investment Management.
Ever since CircleUp Credit Advisors launched in 2017, it originated over $300 million in loans. And with originations growing approximately 3x in the past year, the infusion of new capital will allow CCA to increase its scale and further help consumer product entrepreneurs gain access to credit.
The working capital financing solves a critical pain point for high-growth businesses. By utilizing valuable assets on a consumer product business’ balance sheet such as IOUs from Walmart or shelf-stable inventory, working capital financing reduces the need for entrepreneurs to dilute their equity ownership to finance growth in their core operations.
CCA offers one of the most flexible and holistic working capital solutions available. And it provides brands that sell either online or through traditional wholesale channels with a comprehensive and affordable path to growth.
“We’ve had an incredible year at Liquid I.V., and taking on working capital was a crucial next step for our business,” said Brandin Cohen, the founder and CEO of Liquid I.V. “CircleUp Credit Advisors has been a fantastic partner in accelerating that growth,” he continued. “The team is easy to work with and their expertise in the consumer industry is truly top-notch. Partnering with CircleUp Credit Advisors just made sense.”
CircleUp takes a data-driven approach to investing and is democratizing access to capital. And investment decisions across all funds are informed by the company’s proprietary technology Helio that tracks and evaluates a growing universe of more than 1.4 million companies across more than 200 sources. And consequently, nearly 50% of the companies across CircleUp’s equity and credit portfolio are female-founded or female-led teams.
Along with unlocking access to capital, CircleUp offers portfolio companies the opportunity to join a community of 250 entrepreneurs and seasoned executives. And members support one another by collaborating and sharing resources and best practices from their experience in the consumer industry.
“Our borrowers are growing at roughly 200% annually,” added Asher Hochberg, a Managing Director at CircleUp Credit Advisors. “These are high-growth businesses that are mispriced or underserved by other lenders who do not have the consumer expertise or data to properly evaluate their working capital assets and growth prospects. We’re extremely proud of the work we’ve done so far, and are looking forward to this next chapter.”
