Small and mid-size enterprise (SME) finance platform Crowdz has secured a $10m investment in a financing round to drive its global expansion.
The round was led by Citi and Netherlands-based Cleantech Capital with participation from existing backers Bold Capital Partners, TFX Capital, and Augment Ventures.
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By GlobalDataThe Spread Products Investment Technologies (SPRINT) team, the strategic investing arm of Citi’s Global Spread Products division, led the bank’s investment.
The latest financing brings Crowdz’s total capital raised to $25.5m.
Crowdz enables small businesses “to get paid early at competitive rates” by integrating their accounting, payment processing, and banking systems.
The platform also features proprietary risk scoring that enables financial institutions, banks and DeFi lenders to obtain risk-adjusted, diversified returns, while helping to bridge the SME finance gap.
The fresh capital will be leveraged by Crowdz to expand its operations to meet its target of providing 25,000 SMEs with more than $1bn in working capital in 2023.
Crowdz CEO and co-founder Payson Johnston said: “Crowdz’s planned collaboration with Citi, paired with this investment from our partners, including Global Cleantech Capital, signifies a new phase of growth for the company, which will allow us to expand working capital access for SMEs.
“We share Citi’s view of recurring revenue as having the potential to become a new asset class, and Crowdz’s technology—including a global receivables marketplace with risk scoring, white label for enterprises and banks, and creation of digital assets—will help enable additional investment in this area.”
Citi is committed to expanding access to capital and inclusive financial services. Through its $200 million Impact Fund, the bank deploys its own capital to make equity investments in “double bottom line”.
As part of the partnership, Crowdz will work with Citi to offer SMEs access to the working capital required to keep their businesses running.
Citi Institutional Clients Group head of Digital and CIO Sandeep Arora said: “Citi and Crowdz are both focused on creating new opportunities for SME clients and improving client experiences.
“Crowdz has built an impressive digital approach to provide efficient access to working capital. Digitisation creates momentum, new opportunities for clients, and ultimately, the best user experiences. We’re excited to join this journey with Crowdz and support their continued growth.”
Last year, Citi launched a digital lending platform to help SMEs in the US secure loan of up to $10m.
