- Qwil, a company that supports freelancers and small businesses with financing, announced it raised $224.4 million in equity and debt funding
Qwil — a company that supports freelancers and small businesses with financing — announced recently that it raised $24.4 million in equity and $200 million in debt funding. The debt funding was from several investors, including Jefferies Financial Group. And PeakSpan led the equity round with participation from Mosaik Partners, Reciprocal Ventures, Silicon Valley Bank, Cantos, Sam Hodges, and Prosper President Emeritus Ron Suber.
With this round of funding, Qwill is planning to make new hires and continue supporting more freelancers and small businesses. Qwil co-founder and CEO Johnny Reinsch came up with the idea for Qwil after nearly defaulting on his mortgage in 2014 while freelancing and a client did not pay him on time. Reinsch was denied financing from the bank and he had very few options besides high-interest and predatory loans.
So he launched Qwil in 2015 to provide solutions for others who are dealing with similar issues. Paul Tiplady is the technical co-founder of Qwil. Tiplady was a colleague of Reinsch’s wife at a lab at UCSF. Tiplady had an interest in brewing beer and wanted to start a brewery with a few friends. Reinsch helped them establish Method Brewing and they became friends in the process.
“We have been able to price this very competitively given the price doesn’t rely on FICO scores,” said Reinsch in an interview with Reuters. Qwil charges a flat fee for the advance pay — which equates to a 20% rate on the annualized basis. And the company can send payments to 140 countries in all major currencies.
Qwil offers workers access to payments earlier rather than when the invoices are due. And instead of using credit scores for underwriting, Qwil uses alternative data like payment information. So far, Qwil has advanced over $150 million in pay through its platform. And nearly half of the customers are using the service consistently after their first transaction.
“We’ve partnered with Qwil in their mission to provide fair alternative financing to those typically underserved by the financial industry – contractors and small businesses,” added Jefferies head of SMG principal finance and fintech investing Brian McGrath.
