French startup Silvr has raised a $20.6 million (€18 million) Series A funding round and has opened a $128 million (€112 million) debt line for its activities. Silvr wants to offer new credit opportunities for e-commerce and software-as-a-service companies. Essentially, it wants to bring the Pipe and Clearco experience to Europe.
XAnge, Otium, Bpifrance, Eurazeo and ISAI are participating in today’s funding round. Some business angels are also investing, such as Alexandre Prot, Steve Anavi, Raphaël Vullierme, Louis Chatriot and Pierre Dutaret.
Started in 2020, Silvr has already financed 100 companies, such as Cuure, French Bandit, Almé Paris and Emma&Chloé. Unlike VC funds, Silvr offers capital but doesn’t take any equity. And unlike traditional banks, Silvr can finance riskier businesses that don’t have assets.
When a company applies to unlock some credit with Silvr, they grant access to various data sources — the corporate bank account, Google Analytics, an e-commerce platform such as Shopify, the platform that you use for payments such as Stripe, etc.
Silvr has developed its own scoring algorithm to make decision based on this data. The startup mostly focuses on e-commerce companies and SaaS startups for now. This way, it’s easier to predict future revenue based on past sales.
On average, clients increase their revenue by 64% two months after obtaining some financing from Silvr. And Silvr doesn’t necessarily replace VC money as 35% of Silvr’s clients have raised capital from VC funds.
Silvr offers different ways to receive money. In addition to traditional wire transfers, the startup can offer virtual cards or pay partners directly. For instance, if you want to use Silvr for a new ad campaign, Silvr can pay the bill directly.
As for repayments, clients can pay back using a traditional monthly plan, or they can allocate a portion of their revenue to repayments.
Silvr isn’t the only company working on capital-as-a-service in Europe. Karmen and Uncapped are also working on similar products in France and the U.K. respectively.
