UK-headquartered startup loans provider Uncapped has pulled in $26m in a round led by Mouro Capital, the venture capital unit spun off from banking group Santander.
Global Founders Capital also took part together with Iron Ventures, Seedcamp, White Star Capital and assorted angel investors.
Santander announced earlier this month it would spin out Mouro Capital with a $400m investment budget, doubling its previous commitment. The fund was previously called Santander InnoVentures.
Founded in 2019, Uncapped offers loans to startups which are repaid from the borrower’s operating revenues with the addition of a predetermined flat fee as opposed to interest.
The lending criteria involve comparing the applicant’s projected revenues to a range of marketing, sales and accounting metrics.
Uncapped’s aim is to improve access to capital for businesses in historically under-funded European markets. It claims to process most lending decisions within a matter of hours.
The company will utilise the funding in a bid to grow its customer base by reducing the minimum revenue history for its loans from nine to six months.
Uncapped also claims to have increased its maximum lending capacity to £2m ($2.6m). It has traditionally focused on financing online marketing but is currently branching out into a number of startup growth use-cases.
Piotr Pisarz, co-founder of Uncapped, said: “Equity was the most expensive way to fund digital ad spend and repeatable growth, and as fundraising has become even harder due to the pandemic, it has only become more expensive.
“So our sweet spot continues to be direct-to-consumer products and other fast-monetising startups that generate between $12,800 to $1.3m of monthly sales, have healthy unit economics and want to avoid diluting their founders and existing investors.
Uncapped previously secured $12.7m of equity funding and debt in a December 2019 round featuring Global Founders Capital, White Star Capital, Seedcamp and assorted angel investors, according to TechCrunch.