Revenue-based financier Uncapped launches and secures £10m

Written by Ruby Hinchliffe
3rd December 2019

Uncapped, the 2019-founded start-up claiming to be “Europe’s first revenue-based finance provider”, has raised £10 million in its seed round and launched to help entrepreneurs secure capital without giving up control of their businesses.

The London headquartered and Warsaw-based company has raised a mixture of equity and debt for lending from New York early-stage fund White Star Capital, Berlin-based Global Founders Capital which has backed Revolut, LinkedIn, Facebook and Zalando, and Europe’s Seedcamp.

Co-founders Asher Ismail and Piotr Pisarz

The start-up will provide companies with growth finance without credit checks, personal guarantees, warrants, equity or interest – essentially an alternative which sits between debt and equity financing by offering start-ups between £10,000 and £1 million for a flat fee of 6%.

“As a founder, I’ve raised money from angel investors, VCs, crowdfunding and banks, but was struck by the lack of a revenue-based solution in Europe,” says co-founder Asher Ismail.

“I don’t want another founder to have to pay compounding interest, risk losing their home, or give up more equity in their company than they should,” Ismail adds.

Uncapped is available from Monday 2 December to European businesses which take online payments and have at least nine months trading history – this includes ecommerce, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), direct-to-consumer (D2C), gaming and app development start-ups.

Uncapped is available from Monday 2 December to European businesses

Traditionally the toughest time for cash-flow, particularly among ecommerce companies, Ismail points out to TechCrunch that the Christmas launch comes at an ideal time when sales for the festive period have still not cleared and marketing costs are at an all-time high.

“Whilst VCs will often meet 1,500 companies and back just five of them a year, we have the ability to provide 100s of businesses with growth capital for a flat fee much faster and without sacrificing equity at an early stage,” concludes Ismail.