Small Business FinTech Nuula Lands $120M in Funding

The small-business focused FinTech Nuula has raised $120 million in new funding.

The newly launched Toronto company announced the funding in a news release Thursday (Sept. 9), saying it came from $20 million in equity funding led by Edison Partners, along with a $100 million credit facility managed by Ares Management Corporation.

Nuula describes its vision as giving small-business owners “access to a blend of insightful content, critical business metrics and innovative financial products that can help power their businesses, anytime and anywhere.”

The company’s mobile app, launched in June, offers real-time monitoring of cash flow, personal and business activity, as well as ratings and reviews on social media, letting business owners know right away if there’s a cash, credit or reputational issue that needs their attention.

“Significant innovations have transformed consumer financial services in the past decade. Small business financial services, however, has lagged this revolution, and a new generation of small-business owners are frustrated with that gap,” said Mark Ruddock, CEO at Nuula.

“Today marks the beginning of Nuula’s journey to reinvent small-business financial services, by providing entrepreneurs with instant access to the content, the tools and the capital to power their business from the palms of their hands.”

In addition to the tools included at launch, Nuula also plans to give customers the ability to monitor other important metrics, such as financial, payments and eCommerce data. The company is also planning to offer access to other financial products, including on-demand lines of credit.

Read more: New Report: Half of SMBs Manage Cash Flow Crunch By Not Paying Rent or Vendors

This launch comes at a time when many small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) have reported being unable to pay suppliers, rent or monthly bills or trying to negotiate lower rents.

An August survey of SMBs by PYMNTS found that 49.7% said they had to not pay bills or suppliers when cash became scarce. A fifth of them said they didn’t pay vendors in the past year, while 30% either started or continued the practice in 2021.