Gulp Data Secures Credit Facility for ‘Data as Collateral’ Loans

Gulp Data has secured a credit facility of up to $25 million to expand its commercial lending capacity.

The firm will now offer businesses non-dilutive funding directly from its own balance sheet as well as working with forward flow partners, as it has done since 2021, Gulp Data said in a Tuesday (June 27) press release.

“Private credit has really contracted, particularly in commercial lending, and businesses simply don’t have as many options today as they did just two years ago,” Gulp Data Founding Partner Lauren Cascio said in the release. “This credit facility is launching at a perfect time, and will make us more nimble in vetting borrowers and quickly deploying capital to businesses that embrace this new asset class.”

Gulp Data was founded in 2021 to offer non-dilutive loans using copies of the borrowers’ data as collateral, basing loans on the estimates value of their dataset, according to the press release.

This offer is designed for founders, recognizes that data is an asset, and provides capital while ensuring startups keep their equity and their board seats, according to the company’s website.

The company uses proprietary machine learning (ML) to perform data valuations and to preapprove loans in 24 hours, the release said.

“We’re thrilled to directly manage this capital and fully put into practice the expertise we’ve developed working with Data as Collateral,” Cascio said in the release.

This news comes at a time when startups are reportedly feeling the effects of a tougher fundraising environment, with some closing down their operations, selling more quickly and for less money than they had planned, or changing their business models.

This is happening as venture investors, bank loans and, especially, initial public offerings (IPOs) have become more difficult for startups to obtain, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported June 9.

On June 13, it was reported that venture capital (VC) fund Insight Partners had lowered the $20 billion goal for its latest fund after raising just $2 billion as tech valuations continue slumping.

Insight is considered a bellwether for VC and tech investing, and its funding troubles illustrate the sector’s difficulties, the Financial Times (FT) reported June 12.