Capchase raises $280M to scale its financing platform for subscription businesses

Almost overnight, platforms that offer non-dilutive capital for recurring revenue businesses have become white-hot. It was only in March that Pipe — which aims to be the “Nasdaq for revenue” — raised $150 million, but two months later had raised $250 million at a $2 billion valuation.

This fever is now reaching Europe, where today Capchase raised an additional $280 million in new debt and equity funding, led by i80 Group, following a $125 million round in June. But unlike Pipe, Capchase is playing both in the U.S. and in Europe, where it has made €100 million available to more than 50 companies in its first month of operation on the continent.

Right now it’s live in the U.K. and Spain but expects to expand across Europe this year.

The Spanish-American company is also now launching “Capchase Expense Financing” to enable companies to manage their largest expenses — such as legal bills, cloud hosting services, payroll and bonus payments and recruitment fees —  without depleting their cash reserves, in either 3-, 6-, 9- or 12-month increments.

Miguel Fernandez, co-founder, and CEO of Capchase said: “Our new expense financing solution is a first in the industry, and we believe it will be a game-changer. Since we launched just over a year ago, we’ve seen firsthand the challenges that companies face when securing the financing they need to grow their business. Managing large expenses and having to make difficult decisions over how they spend their cash is one of the most consistent and trying issues that our clients face. There’s also a great opportunity to reduce costs by making use of the upfront discounts that vendors provide. Now Capchase users can pay upfront with Capchase, get a discount, and pay Capchase monthly over the following months.”

At interview Fernandez told me their main competitor is venture debt: “That is the one that we constantly keep winning against.”

He said: “We’re not limited to just monthly or quarterly subscriptions, we can work with any revenue. We apply intelligence to it and work with customers. It’s not just the ability to pull forward revenues to find the growth, but also what is the implied schedule in order to achieve a business goal.”