Toronto based fintech startup which provides capital to online companies Clearco announced having raised $215 million from its latest financing round led by high ranking investors including Japanese conglomerate Softbank Group Corp. (TYO: 9984).
Clearco was established in 2015 by Canadian investors and entrepreneurs Michele Romanow and Andrew D’Souza. Romanow has her reality TV show ‘Dragon’s Den’ in which entrepreneurs presents ideas to source capital, Ramanow saiy how she first had reservations about Clearco.
“I remember talking to Andrew and I was like, why are founders using the most expensive capital in the world to do something that really has a fixed return?” said Romanow.
The duo came up with the idea of financing startups and being paid 1% to 20% of revenue generated up to when they recuperate their initial investment plus an additional 6% to 12% depending on where the money is spent.
In this financing round 13% of the funds came from companies headed by Black and Hispanic people while only 2.6% came from traditional venture capital firms.
The company failed to disclose its valuation after this round however it had market valuation of roughly below $2 billion after a financing round it held on April in which it raised $100 million.
