Drip Capital, a digital cross-border trade finance platform for small and medium businesses, raised $175 million in fresh capital to power its next phase of growth. Funds raised include a $40 million Series C investment and $135 million in warehouse debt facilities. To date, with this fundraise, Drip Capital has raised about $525 million in equity and debt funding.
San Francisco-based TI Platform led the Series C investment round alongside participation from new and existing investors, including Accel, Sequoia, Wing VC, Irongrey and GC1 Holdings. The new capital also includes a $100 million warehouse credit facility with Barclays Investment Bank and a $35 million increase in the existing facility (initially $40 million) with East West Bank.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has put severe pressure on cash flows of exporters and importers alike. This strain is being felt most by SMBs who have never had easy access to capital,” Pushkar Mukewar, CEO and co-founder of Drip Capital, said. “We are excited to welcome TI Platform and Barclays to help further our mission to make global trade easy and accessible to SMBs across the world.”
“We are proud to strengthen our partnership with Drip Capital and excited to support their vision for building the preeminent global trade platform,” Alex Bangash, managing partner of TI Platform, said. “Global trade finance is expected to be a $10 trillion market by 2026. Drip is comfortably established as the market leader in this space, providing SMEs with vital access to financing. Based on strong unit economics, powerful tech-driven underwriting and growth trajectory, TI Platform considers it as a good candidate for breakaway upside.”
“Institutional alliances are an important pillar of our strategy,” Karl Boog, head of capital markets at Drip Capital, said. “These strategic partnerships with leading banks like Barclays and EWB are a significant milestone for us. It is a strong testament to the quality of our assets and ability to grow our customer base rapidly.”
Drip Capital will use the new funding to scale its business over the next 18 months. It will invest in products and technology and accelerate go-to-market strategies in its existing and new geographies like south Asia and Latin America.
The company also plans to launch a new trade facilitation platform designed to alleviate the pain points of small businesses while collaborating with participants across the value chain, including shipping lines, payment processors and insurance providers.
