Investors Lend New Support To Canada’s AltFin Market

Canadian small business lender FundThrough scored an impressive funding round with investors, reports said on Monday (Oct. 10).

The company raised $18.6 million from Scale Up Ventures, according to reports, and the funds will be used to help FundThrough expand its SME client base. The company provides financing to firms as they wait for their invoices to get paid by their own corporate clients. In a statement, FundThrough CEO Steven Uster said working with Scale Up Ventures will be key to expanding the business.

“We wanted to ensure that we brought on partners who had experience in taking businesses with great ideas and scaling them up,” he said. “We also wanted to bring on partners to understand the needs of small businesses and the challenges they face.”

The funding round marks Scale Up’s fourth investment and the second one it’s made public, General Partner Kent Thexton told reporters.

“We are always looking for there to be a big market opportunity,” he said of why Scale Up chose FundThrough. Reports said he pointed to the lender’s high customer satisfaction rating, with 85 percent of SMEs becoming repeat users of FundThrough’s services.

“FundThrough has quickly established itself as a trusted solution for small businesses that gives them an easy access to the capital they need to grow,” Thexton added.

The Series B funding round will mostly be used to fund SME loans, though a portion of it will go to the company as equity, according to reports.

Canada has an expanding alternative small business lending ecosystem. Last year, one of its players, Crown Capital, announced plans to go public and raise up to $100 million. The company ultimately raised $65 million from the float, reports said.