Tapline, a digital finance platform has announced a pre-seed funding of €31.7 million euro

Capital on demand for both early and late-stage companies

Tapline is focused directly on the SaaS vertical across both B2B and B2C business models, especially in the DACH and fast-growth CEE market. SaaS models offer high levels of predictability in recurring revenues, which allows for accurate financial underwriting. Tapline can deploy capital in less than 48 hours after client onboarding.

SaaS companies with as little as €8k MRR (monthly recurring revenue) can fund their growth by trading up to 60% of their ARR into instant, non-dilutive capital. Tapline offers startups 6 or 12 months of upfront cash at a discount against the future value of their revenues. Funding of up to €1m is offered to make this solution suitable not only for SaaS startups but also for later growth-stage like companies

Notably, with the current uncertain macroeconomic environment, the cost of capital is key to founders and Tapline will give SaaS companies a transparent digital solution that provides a clear view of their financing.

"There are many outstanding SaaS companies that have a proven product and a growing customer base, but they need additional funding to fuel further growth. For companies not suitable for or not wanting to raise venture capital, there hasn't been a suitable form of financing in our region for them to take their business to the next level and allow them to keep innovating. Tapline with its non-dilutive financing solution perfectly fits this need. In addition, Tapline has an amazing founder-product fit with Dean, Peter and Dmitrij, so the investment was a no-brainer for us," says Matej Zabadal, Managing Partner of V-Sharp Venture Studio.

Experienced team

Tapline was co-founded in 2021 by Dean Hastie, Dmitrij Miller, and Peter Grouev. The team met at an Antler residency in Berlin. The day zero investor and global early-stage VC firm invested in Tapline in September 2021.

The founding team has over 25 years of experience across key focus areas required to execute Tapline’s business model - namely capital markets, early-stage venture investing as well as product and technology.

Notably, Dean and Peter, originally from South Africa and Bulgaria respectively, worked through the financial crisis of 2008 at household banking institutions Merrill Lynch, J.P. Morgan (USA), and Sanlam Investments (South Africa). Their experience in risk management, fixed-income asset management, and credit makes them a reliable partnership to implement Tapline’s business model, especially in today's economic environment.

Targeting the SaaS liquidity gap in the current market

CB Insights recently reported that global venture funding reached $74.5B in Q3’22, hitting a 9-quarter low. The new funding level represented a 34% drop quarter-over-quarter, the largest quarterly percentage drop in a decade. Evidently, with a clear lack of liquidity in the market even for great companies, Tapline's product could not be better timed as a key liquidity contributor to the startup ecosystem.

The current macro environment also provides a refreshing and exciting start for revenue-based finance, especially as founders are:

i) becoming more educated about this type of financing instrument as well as its various use cases

ii) having an alternative finance option as part of their total capital stack

iii) not giving up precious equity so easily

Tapline has built a fintech product that allows for swift client onboarding, provides clients with a proprietary tech-enabled credit score, and a free financial dashboard that allows clients to monitor various metrics of their business daily. It’s a one-stop shop for SaaS clients to run their businesses more efficiently through key free business metrics and access to liquidity.

“We listened to the fundraising pain points in the market, and it was clear that an alternative financing solution, that is transparent, easy to understand, and offers competitive prices with no hidden costs was required. Ultimately, we can provide a quick, transparent, and non-dilutive capital solution to founders, so they can continue to focus on what they do best: building innovative businesses. During the current economic uncertainty, our platform will allow SaaS companies to continue focusing on growth,” says Dean Hastie, Co-founder, and CEO.

"Following the latest trends in the industry, a new wave of revenue-based financing businesses has arisen and is wanted by founders as a VC alternative. Founded by a great and capable team of ex-bankers, venture builders and technologists, Tapline has been able to build a versatile product," says Michal Ciffra, partner DEPO Ventures.