Shift closes $27m Series C equity raise

Led by Sequoia Capital Southeast Asia, the funding round followed a recent $140 million increase in Shift’s debt funding capacity after a period of strong growth for the company.

Shift offers growth solutions for Australian businesses including capital for growth, equipment finance, and trade payment solutions.

The funding is intended to be used to improve Shift’s suite of credit and payment products in order to “deliver more value” to the company’s network of broker partners, customers, and merchants.

Chief executive of Shift, Jamie Osborn, stated: “Shift’s strong performance over the past three years speaks to the opportunity in disrupting the highly underserved market of business credit and payments, which has lagged behind the wave of innovation in consumer finance.

“With this funding, we are well-positioned to scale our business and unlock growth for our partners and business customers.

“In Sequoia Capital South-East Asia, we found a partner with shared values, and a shared appreciation for the opportunity to disrupt an antiquated industry through product and service innovation.”

Principal at Sequoia South-East Asia, Rohit Agarwal, said: “While large corporates can access financing based on their income or cash flows and consumers can access financing via credit card or personal loans, many businesses in Australia have to rely on mortgaging their homes or vehicles.”

Mr Agarwal added over $3 trillion is outstanding in credit to businesses, with more than 90 per cent of it being backed by real estate or automobiles.

Finspo completes $3m Series C funding round

SME lenders have been quick to raise capital recently.

The Victorian-based fintech Finspo announced the completion of a Series C funding round, raising $3 million in new equity funding commitments.

Funded by existing shareholders, the round was completed on 9 June 2022 and it aimed to help the digital brokerage accelerate the development of its end-to-end digital experience for customers and expand its team of mortgage specialists to better meet demand.

Finspo CEO and co-founder Angus Gilfillan commented at the time: “Our end-to-end digital experience is designed to help Australians not only get a home loan, which is historically hard to get, but also pay it off faster.

“The proprietary tech aims to help customers start their mortgage application online (by enabling them to see how much they can borrow or how much they can save), and — once a loan has been submitted following a broker meeting — then track their application once lodged and approved.”

[RELATED: Finspo eyes growth following $3m funding raise]