Cumulus Funding, a consumer finance company specializing in providing Income Share Agreements (“ISAs”) to individuals seeking a more flexible consumer finance alternative, has announced a major funding round today (March 17).
Cumulus announced it has closed a round of financing of over $30 million in capital, including $6 million in equity funding and a committed $25 million debt financing facility. This Series A equity financing was led by Continental Investors LLC with support from several new equity investors, including HC Technologies, D-W Investments, Bridge Investments and Service Provider Capital, plus additional investment from Cumulus’ existing investors.
“Over the last 15 years, Continental has developed a deep domain understanding in the non-bank financial market. Non-bank consumer finance products have been starved for innovation for decades. We are incredibly impressed with the ISA product developed by Nathan Popkins, Adam Ginsburgh and the team at Cumulus,” said Paul M. Purcell, Manager of Continental Investors. “It is a totally novel, pro-consumer offering that practically solves for the liquidity requirements of those most in need.”
Continental Investors is known for its investment in innovative, young companies in the financial services industry. Their portfolio of companies includes: SumRidge, LevelUp and WePay. All of these companies are disruptors in the financial services space. Continental Investors was founded by Philip J. Purcell, who also founded Discover Card, a disruptor of the credit card space in 1986.
Cumulus’ “equity-like” Income Share Agreement is provided to its customers with funds today in exchange for a future investment return that is based upon a percentage of their income for a fixed period of time. To date, Cumulus Funding has provided Income Share Agreements to over 500 customers.
”We are incredibly excited to expand the reach of our Income Share Agreement product. Historically, demand for our product has exceeded the capital that Cumulus has had available to fund customers,” said Cumulus Funding CEO Nathan Popkins. “This relationship with our funding partners will give us extensive runway to enter into new ISA contracts with customers, and our equity capital will let us expand our reach into new states, add to our tremendous Chicago-based team and build new strategic partnerships.”
“In addition to wonderful equity capital partners, we have cemented a very strong debt capital partner and a board of incredibly knowledgeable and talented professionals. We are fortunate to have a non-bank product visionary in Dan Henry, most recently CEO of NetSpend, joining the board,” Purcell, added.
In addition to Dan Henry, Paul Purcell and Nathan Popkins, Cumulus has also appointed Jeff Jones, Managing Director at Stephens Inc., and Jessica Sohl, General Counsel of HC Technologies, as directors.
Popkins added: “We believe the hard-working labor force of this country is our single greatest asset, and they deserve a financial partner whose interests are well-aligned with theirs. Access to capital is possible using a structure that is flexible, simple and easy to understand.”