SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Lighter Capital, an online lender providing growth capital to technology companies, today announced that Jeff Seely has been named the company’s Chairman. Andy Sack, the company’s Founder, will now serve as Vice Chairman. The move comes as the provider of “Capital-as-a-Service” ramps up to closing six deals per month and nears its 100th investment.
“I know from personal experience how tough it is for entrepreneurs to get the funding they need,” Seely said. “By combining online data gathering, tech-enabled credit analysis, and entrepreneur-friendly funding structures, Lighter Capital is changing the way small businesses fund their growth. The company is scaling up nicely and I’m excited to help the team continue growing and achieve its full potential.”
Seely was Founder, Chairman and CEO of ShareBuilder Securities, one of the largest online brokerage firms in the United States. The company reached over $50 million in revenues and was sold to ING Direct for $220 million in 2007. Seely currently serves as a trustee of the Washington State Investment Board, which oversees more than $100 billion of pension assets for state employees, and as a member of the board of directors of Delta Dental, the largest dental benefits carrier in America. He was also on the board of directors of Concur, which was recently acquired by SAP for $8.3 billion. Earlier in his career, Seely spent 15 years in investment banking at Robertson Stephens & Co., Dean Witter and Smith Barney, where he focused on financings, IPOs, and mergers and acquisitions for financial services firms.
“Jeff has been an incredibly valuable board member for two years and we’re thrilled that he’s stepping up his involvement with Lighter Capital to be Chairman,” said BJ Lackland, CEO of Lighter Capital. “Over the past two years we’ve utilized a web-based lending process to increase our funding from one company a quarter, to six companies a month – and this is just the beginning. We want to fund a thousand companies a year. Jeff’s experience in finance and scaling FinTech companies is unique and a wonderful fit to help us pursue this growth.”
Using its innovative online funding platform, Lighter Capital is able to provide small, tech-oriented businesses, including software, SaaS and tech services providers, with access to more meaningful amounts of growth capital in as little as two weeks.
Entrepreneurs are embracing the Capital-as-a-Service model. Lighter Capital provides $50,000 to $1 million per company, with an average funding size of $250,000. And with the ability to do follow-on financings quickly, Lighter Capital enables entrepreneurs to get even more capital when they need it. On average, Lighter Capital makes 1.7 loans per company. Companies that have recently completed initial and follow-on funding rounds include Quick Left, ($500,000), a Civic Resource Group ($300,000), Good Done Great ($500,000), and 6Qube ($100,000).
“As Lighter Capital continues to pick up momentum, I think it’s smart to draw more heavily on Jeff’s extensive background driving the growth of financial technology companies,” Sack said. “His insight and experience have been tremendous assets to our board, and I’m looking forward to helping Jeff steward Lighter Capital through this period of exceptional growth.”
About Lighter Capital
Lighter Capital makes it easy for small business to access long-term growth capital. We use technology to make it simpler for entrepreneurs to secure larger amounts of capital online – we call it Capital-as-a-Service.
We provide up to $1 million in capital through our RevenueLoans® – a five year revenue-sharing agreement that blends the best of equity and debt.
Lighter Capital’s online application and underwriting process allows us to rapidly structure and fund a loan based on a detailed credit analysis and understanding of our customer’s business. We are currently focused on funding technology companies, with revenues of $200,000 to $10 million, who are seeking to accelerate their sales, marketing or product development.
