a With the new capital infusion, Overland Park-based Novel, led by two of Kansas City’s most experienced tech founders, is expected to revolutionize the growth of SaaS startups with its Capital Intelligence platform.
“A technology founder’s journey is often driven by passion, but also faces obstacles,” Carlos Antequera, CEO and co-founder of Noveluses its real-time data and AI-powered platform to provide analytics, fundraising strategies, and non-dilutive capital to B2B SaaS and technology companies. “Based on our own entrepreneurial experience in fundraising and capital strategy decisions, Novel’s mission goes deeper than fundraising: to guide and support entrepreneurs using technology.”
novel On Wednesday, it announced a pre-Series A round that was oversubscribed by $15 million. IGNIA Partners and WolventuresThe round will drive the expansion of the fintech capital intelligence platform. Matter Scale, Gaingelsand previous investors such as Kansas City-based KCRise Fund also participated.
This latest funding round brings Novel’s total funding to over $130 million and furthers the company’s mission to transform the way technology founders raise capital to grow their businesses.
“Ulu is excited to continue supporting the Novel team as they drive sustained growth in a large and growing market,” said Steve Reale, Partner and CFO at Ulu Ventures. “Novel has developed a powerful product suite that truly addresses the needs of the SaaS ecosystem.”
From the Archives: KC, Wichita Investors, New Backers Help Novel Capital Break Down Funding Barriers
By leveraging AI, real-time data and innovative capital-as-a-service models, New Platform We provide founders with the essential tools to optimize their capital structure with non-dilutive capital. By making more strategic fundraising decisions, founders can scale faster and exit more effectively.
“Our capital intelligence platform and data-driven approach democratizes access to growth capital and strategic tools, increasing the likelihood that all technology founders can turn their vision into a reality,” Antequera said.
Keith Harrington and Carlos Antequera, Novel Capital
At the heart of Novel’s offering is its outstanding Capital-as-a-Service model – a subscription-based capital solution that puts control firmly in the hands of founders by eliminating costly transactions, withdrawals, upfront fees and warrants.
“At Novel, you really get the feeling that you’re working with fellow entrepreneurs and innovators,” says Adam Little, CFO of Vital Data Technology. “They dig deep beyond just the numbers to better understand the company, its trajectory, and its market. Novel takes a new approach to growth and risk assessment that will be extremely valuable for SaaS companies.”
Using a proprietary data-driven scoring model, Novel leverages key metrics in real time to rapidly assess how much non-dilutive growth capital to provide technology companies, ensuring accurate estimates that maximize capital availability while allowing companies to grow over the repayment period.
To date, Novel has worked with over 350 SaaS companies and provided over $100 million in non-dilutive capital.
Clients are also taking advantage of the Capital Intelligence platform, including a real-time CEO dashboard that gives founders a bird’s-eye view of the metrics that matter most to them, and a valuation tool that allows founders to determine the current value of their company and compare it to thousands of other software companies. Novel’s newest offering, VentureMatch, is a data-driven matchmaking service that directly connects founders with over 100 world-class partner VC firms to provide access to equity funding.
“My experience in the venture capital world taught me that backing capital plays a vital role in an entrepreneur’s success,” he said. Keith Harrington, COO and co-founder of Novel“Not only is Novel’s platform scalable to support thousands of entrepreneurs, it also seamlessly integrates into the capital ecosystem. Our goal is not to eclipse traditional funding routes, but to enhance them so that every tech founder has the tools and capital to succeed.”
Novel’s innovative business model has seen the fintech company’s revenue grow more than 120% year over year as of Q1 2024. Company leaders expect Novel’s growth to double over the next year and achieve revenue within the next 18 months, something an increasing number of venture capital firms are evaluating in their investments in 2021 and beyond.
“As an entrepreneur, [Antequera and Harrington] “Novel has a deep and unique understanding of the financing challenges of starting, running and scaling a business,” said Christine Kenna, Partner at IGNIA. “Novel’s customer-centric approach will help countless startups grow and gain access to a critical strategic tool. We are confident in the company’s ability to transform the financing landscape for entrepreneurs and could not be more excited about what’s to come.”
