The Venture Codex

Led · Series A · Sep 2017

Lenda is a San Francisco-based platform that lets homeowners refinance or originate mortgages entirely online. Led by co‑founder and CEO Jason van den Brand, Lenda's technology lets customers get pre-approval, real-time mortgage rate quotes and complete loans online securely. Home loan advisors support customers through the process via live chat, email or phone. Launched in 2013 with a refinance product, the company currently services customers in California, Washington and Oregon. Lenda plans to expand its platform to additional states in 2017 and will use new funding to fill key management positions and increase investment in its software platform. Lenda offers software that lets borrowers compare loans, receive credit reports, upload documentation, and check loan status in real time to streamline refinancing. The company says it reduces time-to-close from two months to about two-and-a-half weeks and can cut borrowing fees by an average of $20,000. Homeowners can complete a refinancing application within 45 minutes and have loans funded in under three weeks, according to CEO Jason van den Brand. Lenda launched from 500 Startups in summer 2014 and processed over $60 million in loans for homeowners in California, Washington, and Oregon. Management has further expansion plans for the following year, and investors have pointed to the company’s 20 percent monthly growth as a key draw. Lenda offers an online platform that lets homeowners complete their home loans from start to finish. Its software enables users to compare loan options, complete applications, e-sign disclosures, upload documents, and lock in rates. The service is available to homeowners in California. Led by co-founder Jason van den Brand, Lenda graduated from 500 Startups. The company received $1.54M in seed funding and plans to use the capital to expand into new markets and simplify the overall user process.

Participated · Series B · Feb 2016

TodayTix is a mobile ticketing platform that helps users discover and buy tickets to theater and other live experiences. Founded in 2013, it began as a mobile equivalent of New York’s TKTS booths and has sold more than 4 million tickets. Those sales represent about 8% of annual Broadway ticket sales and 4% of London’s West End; the app currently offers tickets to 297 shows in New York and operates in 15 markets. The company plans to add more cities driven by partnerships and user demand and to expand offerings beyond traditional theater into comedy and experiential shows. TodayTix runs a TodayTix Presents program to produce shows at a smaller scale and is positioning itself as a media and discovery platform with curated content. Product investments include improved personalization, curation, and faster checkout flows (targeting purchases in 30 seconds or less). TodayTix is a mobile app that provides on-demand access to discounted and full-price last-minute theater tickets across key markets. Launched in December 2013 by Merritt Baer and Brian Fenty in New York City, the app operates in six markets including New York City, London, San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Washington DC and Chicago. The company has partnerships with more than 150 theater institutions globally and reports more than one million users. TodayTix says it now sells an average of two tickets per minute worldwide, quadrupled its sales and user base year-over-year, and accounts for four percent of all Broadway tickets; 54% of transactions are from repeat customers, 91% of users report seeing more shows due to the app, and over 45% see at least three additional shows per year. The Series B proceeds will be used to invest in product innovation, technology, geographic expansion and marketing to grow the user base and market reach. TodayTix offers a mobile-first ticketing app that lets users browse shows, pick showtimes and seats, pay on mobile, and optionally have tickets handed to them outside the theater. Launched by two Broadway producers (including Merritt Baer) and co-founder Brian Fenty, the app has gained rapid traction selling roughly 2–3% of tickets for most Broadway shows in New York City. In nine months since founding it hit a $20 million annual revenue run rate. The product is available on iOS, Android, and Amazon devices and targets a younger demographic (average customer age 32). The company plans to use funding to deepen its NYC presence, launch in London in Q1 2015, build a team of data scientists and technologists, and expand to other cities where touring theater is popular. TodayTix offers simple iOS and Android apps for buying last‑minute theater tickets up to a week in advance, with listings, seating charts and discounted and full‑price options. Six months after launch it had 120,000 users, 15 employees and was earning a 12% margin on purchases while sales were growing 40% per month. Forty percent of its users are active monthly, 40% of sales come from repeat customers, and roughly 50% of purchases in the app are for full‑price tickets. The app charges a flat $5 convenience fee per ticket, collects small commissions on box‑office pickups, and offers a $5 concierge pickup option. Currently only in New York City, TodayTix is preparing to launch in London’s West End this year and has expansion plans for Chicago, Las Vegas and beyond. To support growth it is working with mobile deep‑link retargeting systems like URX and has raised early capital to fund expansion.

Led · Series A · Sep 2015

Cloud Lending Solutions is a global cloud-based financial services technology company offering an end-to-end loan and leasing software platform built on Salesforce. Its platform covers origination, underwriting, servicing, and collections, creating a single system of record within lending operations. Clients include banks, credit unions, traditional finance companies, online lenders, and marketplace platforms. With offices in San Mateo, London, Sydney and Bangalore, CLS says its cloud technology speeds up and digitizes the credit process while improving the client experience. The company and ABN AMRO said the investment will be used to further CLS’s global expansion and to deepen its global footprint. ABN AMRO described CLS as having a strong management team, a broad product portfolio, and a proven track record, and positioned the deal as strategic cooperation within DIF’s lending-focused strategy. Cloud Lending Solutions, founded in 2012 and led by CEO Snehal Fulzele, is a cloud-based financial services technology company built natively on Salesforce. Its core product is a loan and leasing platform designed to digitize the entire lending lifecycle — origination, underwriting, servicing and collections — creating a single system of record for lending operations. The platform serves banks, credit unions, traditional finance companies, online lenders and marketplace platforms. The company intends to use newly raised funds to expand its global reach, accelerate product growth and innovation, invest in additional sales and marketing resources, and evaluate strategic partnership opportunities. The company recently closed a financing round; the amount was undisclosed in the article. Cloud Lending Solutions provides an end-to-end lending solution built natively on Salesforce.com, delivering cloud-based SaaS applications that manage loan portfolios and speed product launches. The platform can enable customers to go to market in as little as 90 days. Since its founding in 2012, the company has grown over 300 percent in the past 12 months and now serves more than 75 customers across 20+ countries. The company says its suite of applications helps lenders lower costs, increase transaction volume and bring new products to market rapidly. Cloud Lending plans to use the new capital to support market expansion and further develop engineering and innovation capabilities. It is targeting expansion into market segments such as commercial real estate and SMB lending. Cloud Lending offers a suite of cloud-based lending applications built natively on the Salesforce/Force.com platform, including CL Originate, CL Loan, CL Lease, CL Microfinance and the recently launched CL Marketplace. The platform covers end-to-end lending operations — origination, underwriting, servicing, collections, accounting, reporting and analytics — and integrates with credit bureaus, payment processors, e-signature, document processors and other third-party services. Cloud Lending targets non-bank lenders such as microfinance institutions, cooperative banks, credit unions, leasing companies and marketplace/P2P lenders, and currently serves 50 customers across 16 countries. Its commercial model is a per-user-per-month (PUPM) pricing structure with rates that vary by license volume; as a private company it does not disclose overall financials or revenue. The company emphasizes speed to delivery, real-time collaboration, API and UI toolkits, and platform extensibility to enable partners and customers to build auxiliary financial applications. Management says it will continue to expand platform capabilities and partner integrations to become a preferred cloud financial-technology platform over the coming years.

Led · Series B · Sep 2015

DriverUp operates an online marketplace that allows accredited investors—hedge funds, endowments, family offices, and high net worth individuals—to directly invest in auto loans while providing dealers a streamlined credit process. The platform uses software and advanced data analytics to enable efficient processing, full transparency, and reporting of marketplace loans. It positions investors to enter the $1 trillion auto lending industry. The company is led by CEO Sam Ellis and is based in Dallas, Texas. DriverUp intends to use new capital to accelerate product development, support added marketplace loan inventory and ramp up marketing efforts. In conjunction with its recent financing, a new investor executive joined the company's board. DriverUp operates an online marketplace that gives accredited investors direct access to auto lending opportunities. The platform connects hedge funds, family offices, and high-net-worth individuals with dealers and streamlines the credit process for dealer financing. DriverUp positions investors to participate in the $379 billion auto lending industry. It is the exclusive brand of Sierra Auto Finance. Sam Ellis is the company's president and chief executive officer. DriverUp launched with $50m in Series A financing.

Led · Series A · Apr 2015

Patch of Land operates an online crowdfunding marketplace that matches borrowers and lenders for short-term residential and commercial real estate loans. The company focuses on real-estate debt investments and was an early mover to offer prefunded loans, shortening developers' wait times for capital. Patch of Land emphasizes technology, data-driven underwriting, and human review to create transparency and efficiency between slow banks and inconsistent hard-money lenders. It has grown a portfolio of short-term loans across the U.S. and is described as one of the biggest issuers, by volume, of 506(c) real estate debt investments. The company raised an oversubscribed $23.6 million Series A and plans to use the proceeds to increase market share, invest in its technology and data systems, and hire additional real estate and technology professionals. Patch of Land is developing an online crowdfunding platform for real estate investments that allows investors to choose individual properties to fund and diversify across many different asset classes and risk profiles. The company was founded in early 2013 by Jason Fritton and is based in Los Angeles, CA. It raised $1.2M in funding from a private Los Angeles firm. Patch of Land intends to use the funds to refine and launch its platform. The financing is presented as general funding in the article; no specific instrument type or revenue/user metrics were disclosed. The company’s immediate focus is on completing product development and bringing the platform to market.