Growing a business is a challenging task, but there are a few things that can make it more challenging than it needs to be. 

One of the biggest hurdles for founders and CEOs looking to scale is a lack of access to capital. Without the cash in hand to make big growth moves, your business may have to settle for growing very slowly, as revenue gradually trickles in over time. Traditional financing methods don’t always have a solution for this problem, as they may not be set up to service emerging business models. They can be too slow and cumbersome for founders who need capital quickly. 

For companies with monthly or annual recurring revenue (MRR or ARR), faster growth is possible, with the right kind of financing. As these recurring revenue businesses become more and more common, recurring revenue financing has emerged to fill the capital gap. Let’s take a closer look at recurring revenue financing (or RRF) and how it can help you grow your business. 

What is recurring revenue financing and how does it work?

Recurring revenue financing was built specifically for companies with MRR and ARR, to allow them to leverage the strength of their business model and avoid dilution. Let’s start with a clear definition of recurring revenue and recurring revenue business models.

 are a great way to build a stable, predictable business. MRR and ARR can be seen as the same concept, just measured over different time periods. Both are defined as the predictable portion of revenue that repeats each month or year. MRR is more commonly used, while ARR is common for companies with multi-year contracts or as a way to measure cumulative MRR for the entire year. 

In years past, recurring revenue was limited to a few subscriptions (think things like newspapers and magazines) or payments on financing like a car or home payment. But recently, subscription-based business models have become the norm for everything from SaaS tools to car and bike subscriptions and streamlined services. 

SaaS and cloud-based companies kicked off this trend by turning both software and hardware into easy-to-use subscriptions, and the COVID-19 pandemic drove the subscriptionification of just about everything else as we all looked for convenient, no-contact ways to do business. Any business that operates with a subscription or contract with regular monthly, quarterly, or annual payments is leveraging a recurring revenue model, with the advantage of predictable revenue and decreased reliance on acquiring brand new customers each month. 

Traditional financing models are based on the old way of doing business. 

 (like venture capital and angel investments) is based on the equity of the company. Equity investors tend to invest in high-growth industries and companies in hopes that the value of the company will increase. Debt financing (like bank loans and 

) is based more on the cash flow of the company and tends to be available to more mature businesses whose cash flow can support the repayment schedule, and who also have substantial hard assets to offer up as collateral against the loan. 

Recurring revenue financing, on the other hand, relies on the power of the recurring revenue model. It treats recurring revenue as a new asset class, recognizing that these predictable revenue streams are a source of stability. Pipe introduced recurring revenue financing by creating the world’s first trading platform for recurring revenue streams. RRF works by enabling companies to sell the rights to future revenues in exchange for up-front capital. It’s a stable, fixed-income-like purchase for investors and a dilution-free financing solution for companies with MRR and ARR. Let’s take a closer look at these unique benefits.

The benefits of recurring revenue financing for businesses

By treating recurring revenue as an asset class, RRF has several benefits over traditional financing. 

Compared to equity, recurring revenue financing has the advantage of being completely non-dilutive. In other words, you don’t give up any of your ownership stake in the company in exchange for growth capital. This is a huge benefit if you’re in a fast-growing industry or company, where your equity may soon be worth much more than investors paid for it. It’s also an advantage in a slower growth industry, because equity investors may not be willing to invest if they don’t see large upside potential in your valuation. 

As we mentioned earlier, traditional lending is often tied to collateral assets, which many recurring revenue businesses like SaaS don’t have much of. This can make traditional debt financing hard to get. The application process can also commonly take 6-8 weeks or longer (with equity rounds taking even longer). 

In contrast, recurring revenue financing is based on the predictability of your cash flow from MRR and ARR. By securely connecting your billing, banking, and accounting software, your recurring revenue is analyzed and forecasted to determine how much capital you’re able to trade. Institutional investors then bid on those revenue streams to determine your cost of capital. When you trade, you get instant access to the annual value of those revenue streams, minus a discount based on investor bids ($0.93 cents on the dollar, for example.)

How to get started with recurring revenue financing 

Getting started with recurring revenue financing is simple and frictionless. Since it’s all based on live, connected data, there are no lengthy applications to fill out, no pitch decks to prepare, and no agonizing road show to win over investors. The health of your company speaks for itself. 

, your trading limit, and your potential bid prices by making sure your company is as healthy as possible. A healthy cash balance and runway give investors confidence that your business will continue generating recurring revenue for the predictable future. Accounting, for recurring revenue businesses, is crucial to securing financing.  While your bank balance and incoming revenue may be healthy, your expenses will determine your burn rate and runway, which are a key part of your financial health and sustainability. Ensuring your books are up-to-date and accurate and that you’ve connected all of your data sources will allow you to get the best possible cost of capital for your recurring revenue financing. 

Pipe is the world's first trading platform for recurring revenue streams. By connecting securely with your live data, it turns those revenue streams into tradable assets. Those assets can now be turned into up-front, dilution-free capital on Pipe’s two-sided marketplace.

Before you can Pipe your recurring revenue, all you need to do is sign up for a free account and securely connect your 

billing, banking, and accounting platforms

. Pipe’s algorithm will identify tradable revenue streams and give you a trading limit (this is the amount of recurring revenue you can trade on the platform for up-front capital). Institutional investors place bids on the platform, and when you choose to trade any portion of your trading limit, you can turn those revenue streams into instant growth capital with the click of a button, with the funds typically hitting your bank the same business day.

Let’s take a look at how three recurring revenue businesses have grown quickly with recurring revenue financing: 

Pave got 7 figures of dilution-free capital to scale their business in just 48 hours

 had already raised equity rounds but wanted to keep scaling without further dilution. By leveraging recurring revenue financing, they were able to access 7 figures of capital to invest in marketing and scale faster without dilution. Not only did they have the funds to speed up growth, but they also had the focus because they didn’t need to pull themselves away from the business to raise another equity round.  

Flexible capital helped software developer Builder.ai grow their revenue 10x in 2 years

 helps companies create custom apps, and they needed a better way to finance their rapid growth. Rather than take on traditional loans or give away equity, they decided to Pipe their recurring revenue. Builder used Pipe to enable a payment plan, acquiring more customers faster, while still collecting the annual value of those payments up front through recurring revenue financing. 

Verma Farms financed an acquisition in 72 hours

 is a luxury CBD brand offering D2C subscriptions to customers. They had a big opportunity to acquire CBD startup Penguin, but they only had 72 hours to secure the funds. They looked into bank loans and equity financing but didn’t have nearly enough time to complete either. After connecting with Pipe, they were able to trade subscription revenue for 7 figures of capital to complete the acquisition in time. 

Businesses have always placed a high value on repeat customers. After all, when people come back, you don’t have to keep finding new customers. Recurring revenue is just a more structured form of repeat business. For example, if you have customers who buy from you about once per month, that would be re-occurring but not recurring revenue. There’s no guarantee they’ll be back each month. However, if they have a contract, subscription, or other structured set up to pay you monthly, that counts as recurring revenue because it’s guaranteed unless they cancel their subscription. 

How do you calculate annual recurring revenue?

 is fairly simple. Just take new subscription revenue + existing subscription revenue  - churned subscriber revenue lost. You can use the same formula for annual recurring revenue or monthly recurring revenue, depending on how often your customers pay you.  

When you know your churn rates and new customer acquisition rates, you can also forecast annual recurring revenue for future periods. When you connect your accounts to Pipe, our proprietary algorithm does this behind the scenes to determine the stability of your recurring revenue moving forward—the more predictable revenue the more you can trade. 

Piping your recurring revenue also allows you to grow your revenue faster by investing capital to accelerate customer acquisition or resolve issues leading to churn.    

Does recurring revenue make it easier to get financing?

Yes! Recurring revenue can often make it easier to get financing. Investors like the predictability of recurring revenue and how easy it is to forecast growth, and the stable income it provides. And if your company has recurring revenue, you can also access recurring revenue financing from Pipe to grow your business without any dilution. 

Growing a business is a challenging task, but there are a few things that can make it more challenging than it needs to be. 

Find out how Recurring Revenue Financing can give you access to dilution-free up-front capital without the restrictions of traditional financing 

What is Recurring Revenue Financing, and Can I Use It?

How You Can Use Recurring Revenue Financing for Faster Growth Without Dilution

Almost every company on the planet has to market and advertise their services if they want to acquire customers. The cost of this outreach is known as customer acquisition cost, or CAC, and it’s a critical metric that companies (especially SaaS) can use to determine how effective their marketing strategies and advertising campaigns are. 

Our CAC calculator is a helpful tool to make crunching the numbers faster and easier than doing it by hand—and it can help you quickly compare different metrics and look at your data from every angle:

, aka CAC, is the amount of money you spend on attracting new customers. It tells you how profitable your sales and marketing efforts are.

 looks at the expenses associated with paid advertising and helps you identify the most and least profitable channels.

looks at the whole picture—both direct and indirect costs associated with customer acquisition—to get closer to the actual costs of gaining new customers.

is how many months of customer payments it will take to recoup the cost of obtaining that customer.

looks at the lifetime value of a customer in relation to how much it costs to acquire that customer.

Just plug the numbers in above to calculate your CAC or keep reading for more details on CAC 

Calculating and understanding your CAC is crucial for making sound decisions about where to focus your marketing spend. It’s also an important indicator of the current and future success of your company. The idea is to understand how quickly you can afford to acquire new customers and ensure you make more money over the lifetime of the relationship than you spend to attract them. 

A company's ability to acquire new customers at a reasonable cost is a critical performance indicator. When you know how much it costs to bring in a new customer, you can better evaluate the success of your advertising campaigns and decide where to focus your efforts.

Two ways to look at CAC: paid and blended

There are two ways to calculate CAC—paid and blended. The calculation you should use depends on your business's objectives and the details of your desired CAC analysis (and many companies will want to use both).

Paid CAC helps you evaluate the expenses directly associated with advertising, like paid social media campaigns and referral programs. It helps you identify which marketing channels have issues that need to be addressed and which channels provide the best ROI.

By contrast, blended CAC considers both direct and indirect costs, like salaries and commissions, which many companies tend to overlook. Blended CAC offers a more robust picture of the actual cost of gaining a customer. It accounts for all your different marketing channels, whether they’re paid or not, and it gives you a high-level snapshot of your business’s acquisitions.

The customer acquisition cost is determined by totaling all relevant expenses incurred over a given period to bring in new customers and dividing that figure by the total number of new customers gained over the same time frame. Here is the formula used to determine CAC:

CAC = Total Sales & Marketing Expenses / New Customers Obtained

Imagine a SaaS company invested $50,000 in advertising and promotion during a single month, and as a result, it gained 100 new clients. For that month, the CAC would be:

Advertising and promotion costs = $50k / 100 = $500 Per Customer

The CAC payback period is the length of time it takes to break even—i.e., how long it will take to earn income from a client that is equal to the amount of money you spent acquiring that client. The CAC payback period helps you track, monitor, and evaluate any changes you’ve made to your marketing strategy as well as the effectiveness of your customer retention programs. 

Knowing the return on your CAC can help you see where you’re overspending, identify how you can improve pricing, and determine why customers may be churning before the end of the payback period. Overall, it’s a helpful metric for deciding where to spend your advertising money and how to build your firm sustainably.

CAC payback is easy to determine: Simply divide your CAC by the monthly average revenue per client x your gross margin. The result is the number of months it will take to make a profit once you spend the money. The ideal payback period will vary by industry, but the shorter the better. The longer the payback period, the longer it will be before the customer is profitable for your business.

A low CAC payback period reflects a lower cost of acquiring new customers while still generating a profit. Keeping an eye on your payback period over time will allow you to see patterns and make the most of your marketing and sales initiatives.

The CAC:LTV ratio: what it is and how to calculate it

It’s possible for a business to determine whether its sales and marketing activities are profitable by calculating its CAC and then comparing it to the customer’s lifetime value (LTV). LTV is the total amount they are likely to spend on a business's goods and services throughout their relationship with the company. If the CAC exceeds the LTV, you’re spending more for customers than you’re likely to ever make back, and something needs to change. 

To determine the lifetime value of a customer:

ARPU = Average Revenue Per User (or customer)

GM = Gross margin, the amount of money made from customers after subtracting the cost of goods sold and any other related expenses.

Revenue Churn Rate = (Revenue lost in a specific period – upsells in that specific period) / revenue at the beginning of the period.

To calculate the CAC:LTV ratio, divide the LTV by the CAC. For example, if your average customer spends $100 per transaction, makes two purchases per year, and stays with you for three years on average, their lifetime value (LTV) will be $600. If your cost to acquire that custom is $100 your ratio looks like this:

While it’s useful for showing you whether your marketing is profitable, the CAC:LTV ratio doesn’t offer much direct insight into specifics you may want to address, such as whether your new referral program is working or your content marketing strategy is converting.

The CAC:LTV ratio is most helpful for businesses that have been around for a while. The more years of information you have to work with, the more precise the ratio will be and the better the  decisions you base on it will be.

Both of these metrics have value. The “best” one depends on the insight you’re looking for to better sustain and grow your business.

CAC:LTV is best for getting a general sense of your overall marketing success—is it profitable, or not? Since CAC:LTV is calculated using averages, it’s most accurate for established businesses with several years’ worth of data to work with. 

CAC Payback is a more accurate and detailed look at your marketing efforts, including marketing campaigns and customer retention programs. CAC payback is a snapshot that requires less data and can provide more insight into critical business decisions when you're a newer company.

The cost to acquire a new customer is a key performance indicator for any SaaS organization that wants to know how effective their marketing and sales strategies are. Whether you’re a SaaS startup, a growing company in any industry, or looking to scale, knowing how much you’re spending on acquiring new business helps you make better resource allocation decisions and hone your sales and marketing strategies.

With a solid strategy in place to acquire customer, Pipe can give you fast, frictionless access to capital to fuel your marketing and sales efforts and help you grow.  

Almost every company on the planet has to market and advertise their services if they want to acquire customers.

Find out how to calculate CAC, why you need to know it, and how it can help you assess your marketing efforts and improve profitability

What is CAC and how do I calculate it? (with formulas) 

What is CAC and how do I calculate it?

As a founder or business owner, you’ve got more than enough on your plate running the day-to-day operations of your business. Financing future growth—whether with equity, debt, or alternative financing—adds an extra layer of complexity that many founders aren’t prepared for. But coming to the table unprepared can quickly lead to problems when you need the funds. 

Let’s take a closer look at the most common reasons founders get denied financing and what you can do to fix those problems.  Whether you need financing right away or are planning for the future—which we highly recommend to anyone not actively seeking funds—keep reading. 

The most common reasons startups fail to get financing

Whether your startup is profitable and needs funding to scale faster, or you’re still pre-profit and need outside funding to operate, a denial can be devastating. Traditional bank loans and equity rounds can take a long time and significant energy. If they don’t result in the financing you need, you may be running out of time to try again.

Here are some key reasons why startups struggle to get the financing they need:

It's a measure of how many months you can go without an outside injection of capital. This applies to any company that’s not yet profitable, which can take years and is never achieved by over half of startups. 

Runway is how much cash you have divided by your burn rate (your net loss of cash each month).

 can make investors worry about your operational efficiency and signal potential problems in the near future. Lenders and investors are hesitant to finance companies with low runway, out of concern the company may not have enough cash cushion to survive a few bad months. Those who will finance a company with low runway often do so at a much higher cost of capital to offset the risk for themselves. 

For an operationally focused or technical founder, bookkeeping and accounting may be the bain of their existence. All those spreadsheets can look like about as much fun as cleaning out the garage or organizing your closet. This is why so many put it off (along with cleaning out the garage and organizing their closet). For many startups, which have yet to put together an accounting team or hire a CFO, it can get put off even longer.

But timely, accurate accounting is an absolute necessity when you want to secure financing.  Your accounting records are the easiest way for lenders and investors to assess the health and risk level of your company.  Even if your company is in great health, if your accounting is a mess—or you haven't 

 in a few months—lenders and investors won't know. For a financier, it can feel like choosing what's behind door number three.

A startup’s balance sheet is crucial when looking for financing because it shows lenders and investors what you own and what you owe. Cash on hand, existing loans, and other obligations all live on the balance sheet, and these are all important for financial approvals. 

Updating and closing the books is also an important part of having an accurate balance sheet, because many of the adjusting journal entries that are made during the monthly closing process will impact balance sheet accounts. If these aren’t up to date, anyone reviewing the financial statements will have to make the most conservative reasonable assumptions about what those numbers are.

It may be even more important to have an accurate P&L for startups looking to get financed. That’s because even if you don’t have many assets or much existing debt, you still need the P&L to reflect your cash flow, revenue, and expenses. These numbers help potential investors or lenders see your ability to repay as well as the potential for growth in your company (by evaluating things like acquisition costs and profit margins).

One of the most frustrating reasons your startup may struggle to get financing is because it’s, well, a startup. While early-stage equity investors are used to funding brand-new ventures, other forms of financing, like banks, want to see a long history of payments and financial responsibility. While financial 

 is clearly a red flag, many startups are simply too new to have 2-4 years of financial records for a funding application. 

How to improve your chances of getting business funding 

Don’t let the struggles we’ve just mentioned get you down. If you want the best chance of securing financing for your growing business, there’s plenty you can do to increase your chances. 

Banks, equity investors, and alternative financing providers are always looking for companies to finance. But first, they need to ensure those companies are healthy. Here are three steps you can take to maximize your approval odds and reduce your risk profile.

Simply put, cash flow is the measure of cash moving in and out of your company. Cash flow measures only liquid payments, so while it includes things like checks and electronic payments (not only currency), it doesn’t include payments on credit that have yet to be collected. Cash flow is an important measure of a company’s health because a business that makes millions in sales but never collects the cash still can’t pay its bills. 

There’s more than one way to calculate cash flow, but the simplest one (called the direct method) involves subtracting the outflows from the inflows in three areas: operating, investing, and financing. Your cash flow is the sum of all three. It’s also important to know each of these three cash flow numbers separately because you could be losing cash on day-to-day operations and only show a net positive cash flow because of investing activities (like selling equipment) or financing that won’t occur in a typical month.

A lack of cash on hand is a big red flag when you’re looking for financing. It can seem counterintuitive, as the need for cash is one reason you may be looking for financing, but there’s a good reason for it. For example, if you apply for a personal credit card, but you’ve used up most of your currently available credit, you'll be declined. The card company will likely decide you’re living beyond your means and will be a high risk with an extended credit limit. 

The same concept applies to cash on hand and financing. Having no cash cushion can signal to banks and investors that your company is operating with no margin. That’s a big risk if the unexpected comes along. 

Since cash on hand is part of the equation for measuring your runway, you need to have a decent cash balance showing you can operate through a dry spell. You can calculate your burn rate and runway using 

In the above example, you’d likely need to pay down your credit card balances first. As a startup seeking financing, you can improve your chances by tightening your burn rate to save up a cash cushion. You may also strengthen your cash position by seeking friends and family or small-check angel investment first.

A solid cash runway gives you more financial options by showing that your startup can survive to the next funding milestone. Maintaining a certain runway is challenging in tough times, but founders need to know what to shoot for as they secure funding and prune their spending to reduce burn rate.

While many banks and investors use 12-18 months of runway as a standard, it can vary by your industry and the type of financing you’re seeking. Ultimately, the longer your runway, the better off you are when it comes to obtaining capital. A company that has a healthy cushion and sticks to a plan to moderate burn will always be a more attractive financing option, giving you more choices and access to better terms.  

If you’re seeking debt financing, it’s important that your current cash-to-debt ratio is manageable. The cash flow required to service your existing debt will play into your burn rate and impact your ability to service more debt. Lenders will also consider the seniority of your debt and may be hesitant to lend if they’ll be subordinated to more senior debt. 

Issues like runway, cash flow, and burn rate are all important factors to consider when you’re deciding on the type of financing to pursue. While each type has its place, none of them is right for every business in every stage of growth. Next, we’ll take a closer look at the types of financing, and consider which is best for your specific situation.   

Choosing the Right Type of Financing for Your Startup

Now that you have an understanding of why startups may struggle to get financing, how you can prove that your business is healthy, and some of the key financial metrics that lenders and investors look at when deciding whether to extend financing, you need to think about the type of financing that fits your needs. Keep in mind that 

 will have different requirements and be designed for specific stages of the business life cycle.

 rounds throughout the life of the business, it’s especially popular as a way to get started, because equity investors are looking at your future potential. While equity can cost more in the long run, it doesn’t have any up-front cash flow requirements.

, including bank loans and revenue-based financing, will be a better fit once your business has consistent revenue. Lenders will want to see that you have the cash flow to service the loan payments, and, once you have that cash flow, you can preserve equity by using a method like this. 

, allows you to access up-front capital with your future revenue streams, without the common limitations of traditional bank loans or the dilution of equity fundraising. It works for a wide variety of companies with diverse types of revenue, and can even be used to extend runway and fund growth between equity rounds. 

Getting the right financing when you need it

Whether you’re looking to grow your business or finance operations to keep your business steady, you need to find the right financing source and make sure you’re in the best position to get approved.

For more information on dilution-free recurring revenue financing from Pipe, 

When it comes to securing financing for your startup, there are a few key steps you can take to improve your chances of getting approved.

Focusing on these three key areas will help you access capital and boost your company's eligibility for growth financing. 

3 Ways Startups Can Improve The Chances of Getting Financing

3 Ways Startups Can Improve Their Chances of Getting Financing

 was already a seasoned door-to-door sales veteran. But today, as CEO of 

, he knocks on far fewer doors and instead is focused on modernizing what he admits is an “outdated industry.”

That’s why he thinks of Brooks as a “sales company that does pest control.” 

When Eric launched Brooks Pest Control in 2018, he made “a decent amount of money”—but was also $30,000 in debt. 

Now in its fifth year, Brooks has branches in three states, generates eight figures in revenue, and is experiencing “crazy fast” growth. But getting here took a series of sharp turns—which 

The challenge: Getting capital to grow—in an "outdated" industry

Dated perceptions about pest control have flowed upstream from the general public to traditional financial services, creating a cycle of slower innovation in the industry and skepticism among institutional investors. Even though “pest control is a need for everyone,” people just don’t see the opportunities, said Eric.

As early growth started to plateau, scaling started to feel “impossible.” Eric and two business partners had poured in their own money to get started, but because they were a young company without collateral—aka few traditional assets—investors just “would[n’t] give them the time of day.”

In fact, when he started looking for funding, it didn’t seem to matter that the company was bringing in hundreds of thousands of dollars a month.

Pest control wasn’t catching anyone’s eye—except one backer who, during the company’s second year, was willing to offer financing, but wanted 40% 

 in return. It left the Brooks team in a bind. 

, Eric and team turned down that very dilutive opportunity—but had no idea what they were going to do. 

The solution: Connecting with recurring revenue financing 

The magic of the internet brought Eric and Pipe together. While Eric and his Brooks partners were on a business trip, they happened upon Pipe via Twitter. Eric read everything he could about the company for the next hour—and then got in touch.

“Initially, we didn’t qualify for Pipe,” Eric says. “But we were in close contact with our revenue manager, and they told us exactly what we had to do to qualify… We made the necessary changes, and once we qualified three or four months later, it was cake.” 

, the company was able to access a  $4 million trading limit—which means Eric and the team could pull forward the funds they needed whenever they chose, and could now grow Brooks Pest Control on their terms. 

The Results: Brooks is exterminating their growth hurdles

The explosive growth fueled by access to capital has led to new opportunities as other companies have taken note of Brooks’ momentum.

 by a 70-year-old company, Clark Pest Control, in California. Brooks’ new mission? Keep growing. They’re aiming to add 20,000 to 25,000 new customers in a six-to-eight-month period, using Pipe to fuel growth.

By partnering with Pipe, the growth potential that Eric and team had all along has been unlocked. Put simply: “Without Pipe, we’d be back to square one again.” 

The explosive growth fueled by access to capital has led to new opportunities as other companies have taken note of Brooks’ momentum.


Now in its fifth year, Brooks has branches in three states, generates eight figures in revenue, and is experiencing “crazy fast” growth. See how Pipe helped out. 

How Brooks Pest Control Financed “Crazy” Growth in an Outdated Industry

PAVE is a credit-building subscription service with a mission to “put a stop to the financial inequality that is spreading in our society.”  

Harnessing state-of-the-art analytics that combines open banking data, credit file data, and data from over 100,000 proprietary lending decisions, 

 aims to put individuals and businesses on a sustainable path to good credit. 

Founded in 2018 (originally Portify), the company has raised several equity rounds. In 2022, Pave launched its B2B service, the 

, which helps businesses make the best lending decisions to increase acceptances, reduce risk, and save time. 

Like many entrepreneurs, Pave co-founder and CEO 

 admits to having a love-hate relationship with fundraising. But after growing up in Japan and working in its social finance sector, working for an NGO in Brazil, and moving to London feeling “inspired by the power of what financial services could do for financial inclusion,” he was committed to Pave’s vision. Which meant he’d need to look for capital to have the biggest impact. 

The challenge: Getting the capital to get the word out about the Pave app

With a strong vision in place, investing in marketing would help the company grow faster. But Sho says Pave’s biggest challenge was getting the word out. “As a founder, you don’t want to be spending time fundraising. You want to be building your company.”

After multiple funding rounds—and all the effort that went into them—Sho and team needed a 

 that would help them reach their goals and stay focused on the business.

The solution: Efficient, streamlined access to capital

In the end, though, Sho’s pavement pounding led to a solution to Pave’s problems—and even opened up opportunities he didn’t know were possible. While preparing for a 

 round, Sho got a message from a colleague who recommended 

Within 48 hours of that call, Pave was on track to trade its 

 for up-front non-dilutive capital on Pipe. 

The results: Faster growth through frictionless financing

Pave was able to access capital to invest directly into marketing. And rather than slowing themselves down by reaching out to investors for funding, they got that capital instantly and were free to focus on running the company. 

“We’re a pretty high-growth business with multi-million revenue,” said Sugihara. Pipe helps Pave feel far more comfortable in its own lane, and forging its own path. “There’s lots of hype on 

, or wherever around large and increasingly larger venture-backed raises… we haven’t raised as much of those types of headlines because, frankly, we haven’t had the need. It’s often quite important not to get distracted by those mega rounds, because that’s not necessarily success.”

Sugihara assumed further dilution was definitely in Pave’s future, but now says “Since we have quite a strong repeatable revenue business, [We’re able] to avoid dilution.” “Pipe’s funding model creates a great alternative structure to retain your interest in your own company longer.”

PAVE is a credit-building subscription service with a mission to “put a stop to the financial inequality that is spreading in our society.

As a founder, you don’t want to be spending time fundraising. You want to be building your company.

How Pave got 7 figures of capital to scale in just 48 hours

Case Study: How Pave got 7 figures of dilution-free capital to scale their business in just 48 hours

How Pave got 7 figures of dilution-free capital to scale their business in just 48 hours

Pipe's founding team are stepping down from executive roles in favour of new CEO Luke Voiles

Pipe Hires New CEO As Founders Make Way For Scale-Up Experience

Former Square and Intuit Executive to Lead Pipe’s Next Phase of Growth

Pipe Names Seasoned Fintech Leader Luke Voiles as New Chief Executive Officer 

; Pipe, creator of the world's first trading platform for revenues, today announced Luke Voiles will become the company’s next Chief Executive Officer and will join its board of directors as of February 20, 2023. The company has also appointed Albert Periu, the CEO of Zilch USA Inc, to its board of directors. 

Voiles joins Pipe from Square, where he served as General Manager of Square Banking. With in-depth experience across fintech, financial services, and capital markets, Voiles will lead the company in its next phase of growth, working closely with Pipe’s executive team, employees and board to continue empowering entrepreneurs and companies to grow their businesses on their own terms. 

“We are in a transformative period in the evolution of fintech. Embedded financial services are disrupting the status quo and Pipe has the opportunity to demonstrate to the world what the future of capital access looks like,” said Voiles. “I am excited to partner with the founders and the entire team to run with the founders' vision to build the global platform for revenue to reach even more entrepreneurs and companies that want to expand and grow their businesses and spend less time worrying about how to access capital to do so.”

In his role at Square Banking, Voiles led the teams responsible for scaling and managing Square Loans, instant transfer, Square Checking, and Square Savings globally. The Square Loans business has been pacing above $1 billion per quarter in loan volume, making it one of the largest alternative SMB lenders in the world. Prior to Square, he held roles at Intuit, including CEO and President of QuickBooks Capital, building the lending business from scratch and scaling it to $2 billion in loans originated. Voiles has also worked at blue-chip alternative investment firms focused on credit and special situations, including TPG Capital and Lone Star Funds. His deep product and technology experience has helped Voiles establish himself at the forefront of category creation across market and economic cycles, inspiring him to develop offerings for companies and customers that are not well-served by traditional and technologically-antiquated channels.

"Pipe’s opportunity grows bigger every day. We believe that Luke is the right person to unlock our full potential and lead us into the next phase of operational excellence. Over the last two decades, Luke has helped scale innovative products within fintech leaders like Square and Intuit. He is a true builder and an entrepreneur at heart, and with his leadership experience, he will take Pipe into our most exciting phase of growth," said Josh Mangel, Co-founder and Executive Chairman of Pipe. "In my new role as Executive Chairman, I will focus on what I do best: building and driving strategy for Pipe’s long-term product vision to be the global platform for all revenue."

"Luke is one of the best operators and leaders in the fintech space,” said Logan Allin, Pipe board member and Founder & Managing Partner, Fin Capital.“The Founders have built a category-leading platform that has reimagined software solutions to support companies in their financial journeys and streamlined access to alternative forms of financing. Luke is the ideal leader to collaborate with Pipe’s Founders, board of directors, and team to reach companies of every size and across sectors.” 

Since Pipe’s launch three years ago, over 23,000 companies have signed up for Pipe, and over $7 billion of ARR has been connected to the platform. Today, over 50% of the trading volume on the platform comes from non-SaaS vertical markets, including direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscriptions, streaming services, service-based businesses, and more.    

Pipe is a trading platform that enables entrepreneurs to grow their businesses on their terms. By treating revenue streams as an asset, Pipe allows companies to transform their revenue into up-front capital, instantly. For entrepreneurs, that means more cash flow for scaling their businesses without dilution. For investors, Pipe has unlocked the largest untapped asset class, revenue. Whether you're an entrepreneur or an investor - Pipe is growth on your terms. To learn more, visit 

Luke Voiles, a passionate fintech leader, and business builder has been named the next CEO of Pipe. Before his appointment, he was the GM of Square Banking at Block where he led the global team responsible for managing, launching, and scaling small business banking and lending products. Before Square, he was at Intuit, where he led the team in building out the small business lending unit, QB Capital, from scratch. Luke made the switch from private equity to fintech after more than a decade as a distressed asset and credit special situations investor at top-tier funds, including TPG Capital and Lone Star Funds. He has a JD and an MBA from SMU and a BA in Computer Science and Economics from Austin College. 

Albert Periu currently serves as Chief Executive Officer of Zilch USA Inc. (“Zilch”) a financial technology company focused on providing payment and credit solutions to US and UK consumers. During his tenure with Zilch, he has been responsible for Zilch’s strategy and operations in the U.S. Prior to Zilch, Al was Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Neptune Financial Inc., a financial technology company whose commercial lending platform provided growth capital to small and mid-sized American businesses. Previously, Al served as Global Co-Head of Capital Markets for Funding Circle Ltd. ("Funding Circle"), an online lender focused on U.S. and U.K. small and medium-sized businesses. He also served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Funding Circle’s broker-dealer, Funding Circle Securities. Prior to his time with Funding Circle, Al held roles with FBR & Co., Deutsche Bank, and Merrill Lynch. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Georgetown University.

Earlier today, Harry Hurst shared the following message with his employees

A Message from Pipe Co-CEO Harry Hurst

It was less than three years ago that Josh, Zain, and I set out with an ambitious goal to build the world’s first trading platform for recurring revenue–letting founders, operators, and companies grow on their terms. In this short time, we’ve achieved so much together.

In partnership with you, our amazing team, we’ve put recurring revenue financing on the map and created a category and asset class that’s evolved globally. While it’s no easy task to build a company and scale so fast, we’ve done something exceptional–and we should be extremely proud of what we’ve accomplished.

Together we’ve been able to attract over 22,000 companies to our platform who have connected $7B of ARR to Pipe and have expanded internationally to the UK. This is an incredible feat and one I’m immensely proud of, and it’s only the beginning.

With this initial success, we have kept a close eye on building a sustainable business. We are well capitalized with over half a decade of runway and we are, by far, the definitive market leader in the space. We have a world-class team and a phenomenal product loved by our customers.

As we’ve grown at a lightning pace, I’ve always taken time to think about how best I can serve our mission in a way that continues to unlock my strengths as a founder, while ensuring the company continues to flourish. I’m a zero-to-one builder, not a hardcore operator. We need both. I know that in order to take this company to the heights we know it can reach, we need to continue to build a culture of operational excellence within our team and recruit leaders who have the experience to drive our ambitious vision for Pipe on a massive and even public scale, and that starts at the top. With this in mind, I have some important news to share with you.

I’m excited to announce that we will be welcoming a new CEO to Pipe soon. As part of this process, I will move from my Co-CEO position into a Vice Chairman role, where I’ll focus my attention initially on supporting the CEO search and transition. I’ll continue my work evangelizing Pipe’s mission among our customers and partners while advising the leadership team on long-term strategy and vision for the company.

One of the great advantages of having a Co-CEO that you’ve worked with for almost a decade is that you can build and grow together. There’s an indescribable level of trust in each other to do so. That’s what I have in Josh, who will be moving from Co-CEO into the CEO position in the interim. Josh will continue leading the internal organization as we double down on what our customers need from us as their capital and growth partner. Once the new CEO is announced, Josh will become Executive Chairman, with a continued focus on product and strategy. As part of streamlining our leadership, Usman will also be transitioning to the CTO role. He’s had a tremendous impact on our organization. Zain will also remain deeply involved, both at the board level and in his role as Senior Advisor.

I can assure you all that these changes are the result of meaningful deliberation and thoughtfulness, over an extended period of time, about how to position Pipe for success over the long term. We’re fortunate to be able to make changes from a position of strength, both structurally and financially. We’re taking all the right steps to expand our board and management team, so we can run hard at the opportunities ahead with the best-in-class leadership.

We’re blessed to have an amazing team, a strong customer base, and significant capital. We have kept our burn low, giving us the latitude to be thoughtful about these long-term impactful decisions.

Our highest priority is to take our significant lead in the market and leverage our strong financial position as we build toward our ultimate goal–to become the trading platform for all revenue.

It’s always been about building for decades and I can’t wait to see what this one brings.

Company Conducting Search for New CEO To Expand Pipe’s Market Leadership in Alternative Finance

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Pipe Names Seasoned Fintech Leader Luke Voiles as New Chief Executive Officer

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