Home > News > Top Stories > Arc Raises $161M to Launch Full-Service Finance Platform for SaaS, Built in Partnership with Stripe

Cloud App Development

Arc Raises $161M to Launch Full-Service Finance Platform for SaaS, Built in Partnership with Stripe

Arc, the full-service finance platform for SaaS, emerged from stealth with $161 million in total funding from equity and credit investors. In partnership with Stripe, Arc is building a first-of-its-kind fintech solution where software founders can borrow, save, and spend on one comprehensive digital platform. Its introductory product, Arc Advance, allows SaaS founders to seamlessly convert future revenue into upfront capital without dilution at the click of a button.

cloud services are among the world’s fastest-growing markets — estimated to reach $400 billion in revenue in 2022 and growing 20%+ year-over-year, according to Gartner. However, innovation in SaaS companies has outpaced the funding solutions supporting them. Historically, high-growth software companies in their earliest stages turn to venture capital and occasionally venture debt to fund their growth. These traditional sources of capital leave startups with expensive and offline solutions that limit their ownership, control, operating flexibility, and ultimately growth. Arc provides SaaS founders with a digitally native tool to fund growth without dilution, tapping into future recurring revenue to pay for operating expenses today.

As the full-service finance platform purpose-built for SaaS startups, Arc is building a community of premium software companies where they can borrow, save, and spend all on a single technology platform. Arc is transforming Wall Street for Silicon Valley — marrying the capital available to mature companies with the consumerized technology experience demanded by technology startups. The company is quickly becoming the home for SaaS founders’ finance needs.

 “Arc provides SaaS startups with the funding alternative they deserve, empowering founders to scale without selling an ownership stake in their business or risking insolvency with legacy credit products. Arc was purpose-built for software founders. Our fintech platform eliminates the friction inherent in traditional capital raising while broadening access to non-dilutive capital, helping founders preserve ownership in the business they’ve worked so hard to build. And this is only the beginning — in the coming months, we'll be launching a full suite of financial tools to empower SaaS founders to scale their businesses efficiently and retain control. We want founders to know that when it comes to accessing and managing capital, Arc has your back.”

  Don Muir, Arc co-founder & CEO
 

Unlike conventional banks, Arc leverages technology to programmatically underwrite credit risk, allowing Arc to deploy capital to founders in minutes rather than months. Backend API integrations from companies like Plaid enable Arc to rapidly and securely underwrite credit risk through real-time access to a startup’s financial data. Machine learning allows Arc to drastically improve interpretation of the financial information it receives compared to manual analysis alone. Leveraging Stripe’s banking-as-a-service technology, customers can store and spend their funding from Arc on a single platform designed for software companies. By building on top of these technology solutions, Arc has turned financing on its head, allowing founders to borrow against the future revenue of their company and grow efficiently. With Arc, startups can access the capital they need when they need it — without debt or dilution. Technology-driven financing also removes the biases inherent in conservative financial services — leveling the playing field for founders, especially those outside of Silicon Valley.

NFX founder James Currier joined Arc’s Board of Directors and led the fund’s investment in Arc. Currier commented, “This is the top team going after this space. They met at Stanford GSB and prior to Arc, built consumerized SaaS software in Silicon Valley as well as raised billions of dollars of debt on Wall Street.”

The company has also partnered with Y Combinator, which shares Arc’s mission to help startups grow. Arc was an early member of YC’s Winter 2022 batch, which commenced earlier this week. Jared Friedman, General Partner at Y Combinator, notes, “The Arc team's top-notch execution and the strong market need for this product have caused the YC community to rally behind their success."

Since launching last summer, over 100 startups have signed up for the Arc platform. In the fourth quarter of 2021, the company increased its total funding to customers by over 110x — a period where funding was limited to select launch partners and a waitlist proliferated. To date, the largest segment of customers has been VC-backed B2B SaaS companies seeking to accelerate their growth spend while also prolonging their runway before raising additional equity.

In addition to NFX and Y Combinator, the equity round also included participation from Bain Capital Ventures, Clocktower Technology Ventures, Torch Capital, Will Smith’s Dreamers VC, Soma Capital, Alumni Ventures, Pioneer Fund, and Atalaya Capital Management. Atalaya also provided the credit portion of the investment.

A large number of high-profile angel investors also contributed to the round, including over 100 founders from Y Combinator-backed companies such as Vouch, Observe.AI, Eden Workplace, Teleport, RevenueCat, QuickNode, Dover, Middesk, Instabug, and Rainforest QA, as well as multiple founders of decacorn fintechs. The ex-Stripe angel syndicate also invested in the round.

About Arc
Arc is the full-service finance platform for SaaS, providing software startups with the customized financial products they deserve. Founded in 2021, Arc is on a mission to help startups grow by converting future revenue into upfront capital at the click of a button. The company is based in San Francisco and is funded by NFX, Bain Capital Ventures, Clocktower Technology Ventures, Torch Capital, and Y Combinator, among others. 

Spotlight

More featured news

Spotlight

Related News

Cloud Storage

TRG Screen Announces Acquisition of Xpansion for Reference Data Usage Management

PR Newswire: | January 25, 2024

TRG Screen, the leading provider of enterprise subscription spend and usage management software, today announced it has acquired Xpansion, the leading provider of cloud-based solutions for reference data usage monitoring in the financial services industry. The acquisition of Xpansion will further solidify TRG Screen's position as a global market leader in market data management solutions. Xpansion – established in 2013 – is focused on empowering data operations teams to proactively manage their usage, control costs and optimize data workflows. Xpansion's offerings include Xmon, Xprocess and Xplore, and provide real-time analytics, giving clients unprecedented transparency, visibility and control into their reference data usage. This deal consolidates TRG Screen's unique position as the only provider of enterprise subscription management capabilities spanning the whole spectrum of market data optimization, from spend and inventory tracking, through to usage and enquiry management, exchange reporting and compliance. "Xpansion and TRG Screen have been partners for many years. Bringing Xpansion into the TRG Screen family is a very logical next step for both companies, given our strong relationship and shared view that the industry demand for integrated usage management solutions is going to continue to grow," said TRG Screen CEO Leigh Walters. "Xpansion is an established firm with excellent customer satisfaction and retention, and highly experienced and industry respected leadership. We are very excited at the opportunities this acquisition brings." "We are thrilled to be joining TRG Screen," said Xpansion co-founder and CEO Amjad Zoghbi. "Reference data usage is one of the most complex aspects of market data management, and managing it correctly is essential to maintaining contractual compliance and ensuring clients are right-sizing their usage based on actual consumption and business need. I'm very pleased that Xpansion's customers, and team, will now be part of the best-of-breed solution with the industry's leading provider of market data management solutions." The acquisition demonstrates TRG Screen's ongoing commitment to servicing the needs of market data consumers, vendors and exchanges. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. About TRG Screen TRG Screen is the leading provider of enterprise subscription management solutions. Founded in 1998, TRG Screen is uniquely differentiated by its ability to monitor both spend and usage of data and information services including market data, research, software licenses, consulting and other corporate expenses. TRG Screen's solutions provide its customers with full transparency into their vendor relationships and their subscription spend and usage, enabling them to optimize their enterprise subscriptions. TRG acquired Priory Solutions in 2016, Screen Group in 2018, Axon Financial Systems in 2019, Market Data Insights in 2020, and Jordan & Jordan's Market Data Reporting (MDR) business in 2021 and with these acquisitions is now positioned as the global market leader in the financial, legal, and professional services markets. TRG Screen's product portfolio includes subscription spend, usage, enquiry and compliance solutions. For more information visit trgscreen.com. Follow TRG Screen on LinkedIn, @TRG Screen, and on Twitter, @trgscreen. About Xpansion Xpansion delivers next-generation reference data solutions that empower financial institutions to streamline their reference data operations, reduce costs, enhance data quality, and improve data discovery. With a focus on customer satisfaction, continuous innovation and quick time to value, Xpansion is a trusted partner for financial institutions in the buy- and sell-side as well as solution providers in the industry.

Read More

Cloud Infrastructure Management

The Manufacturing Sector Experiences More Attacks in the Cloud than Any Other Industry

PR Newswire: | January 19, 2024

Netwrix, a cybersecurity vendor that makes data security easy, today revealed additional findings for the manufacturing sector from its survey of 1,610 IT and security professionals across more than 100 countries. According to the survey, 64% of companies in the manufacturing sector suffered a cyberattack during the preceding 12 months, which is similar to the finding among organizations overall (68%). However, it turned out that the manufacturing sector experiences more cloud infrastructure attacks than any other industry surveyed. Among manufacturing companies that detected an attack, 85% spotted phishing in the cloud compared to only 58% across all verticals; 43% faced user account compromise in the cloud as opposed to 27% among all industries; and 25% dealt with data theft by hackers in the cloud compared to 15% for organizations overall. "The manufacturing sector relies heavily on the cloud to work with their supply chain in real time. This makes their cloud infrastructure a lucrative target for attackers — infiltrating it enables them to move laterally and potentially compromise other linked organizations, as happened to one the world's top meat processing companies. Credential compromise or malware deployed via a phishing email is just the beginning of the attack," says Dirk Schrader, VP of Security Research at Netwrix. "The attack surface in the cloud is always expanding, so it's critical for manufacturing companies to adopt a defense-in-depth approach," adds Ilia Sotnikov, Security Strategist at Netwrix. "First, they must rigorously enforce the principle of least privilege to limit access to sensitive data, which ideally includes just-in-time access to eliminate unnecessary entry points for adversaries. They also need to gain deep visibility into when and how critical data in the cloud is being used so that IT teams can promptly spot potential threats. Finally, they need to be prepared to minimize the damage from incidents by having a comprehensive response strategy that is regularly exercised and updated." To learn more about security trends, check out the complete 2023 Hybrid Security Trends Report. About Netwrix Netwrix makes data security easy. Since 2006, Netwrix solutions have been simplifying the lives of security professionals by enabling them to identify and protect sensitive data to reduce the risk of a breach, and to detect, respond to and recover from attacks, limiting their impact. More than 13,500 organizations worldwide rely on Netwrix solutions to strengthen their security and compliance posture across all three primary attack vectors: data, identity and infrastructure.

Read More

Cloud Storage

TRG Screen Announces Acquisition of Xpansion for Reference Data Usage Management

PR Newswire: | January 25, 2024

TRG Screen, the leading provider of enterprise subscription spend and usage management software, today announced it has acquired Xpansion, the leading provider of cloud-based solutions for reference data usage monitoring in the financial services industry. The acquisition of Xpansion will further solidify TRG Screen's position as a global market leader in market data management solutions. Xpansion – established in 2013 – is focused on empowering data operations teams to proactively manage their usage, control costs and optimize data workflows. Xpansion's offerings include Xmon, Xprocess and Xplore, and provide real-time analytics, giving clients unprecedented transparency, visibility and control into their reference data usage. This deal consolidates TRG Screen's unique position as the only provider of enterprise subscription management capabilities spanning the whole spectrum of market data optimization, from spend and inventory tracking, through to usage and enquiry management, exchange reporting and compliance. "Xpansion and TRG Screen have been partners for many years. Bringing Xpansion into the TRG Screen family is a very logical next step for both companies, given our strong relationship and shared view that the industry demand for integrated usage management solutions is going to continue to grow," said TRG Screen CEO Leigh Walters. "Xpansion is an established firm with excellent customer satisfaction and retention, and highly experienced and industry respected leadership. We are very excited at the opportunities this acquisition brings." "We are thrilled to be joining TRG Screen," said Xpansion co-founder and CEO Amjad Zoghbi. "Reference data usage is one of the most complex aspects of market data management, and managing it correctly is essential to maintaining contractual compliance and ensuring clients are right-sizing their usage based on actual consumption and business need. I'm very pleased that Xpansion's customers, and team, will now be part of the best-of-breed solution with the industry's leading provider of market data management solutions." The acquisition demonstrates TRG Screen's ongoing commitment to servicing the needs of market data consumers, vendors and exchanges. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. About TRG Screen TRG Screen is the leading provider of enterprise subscription management solutions. Founded in 1998, TRG Screen is uniquely differentiated by its ability to monitor both spend and usage of data and information services including market data, research, software licenses, consulting and other corporate expenses. TRG Screen's solutions provide its customers with full transparency into their vendor relationships and their subscription spend and usage, enabling them to optimize their enterprise subscriptions. TRG acquired Priory Solutions in 2016, Screen Group in 2018, Axon Financial Systems in 2019, Market Data Insights in 2020, and Jordan & Jordan's Market Data Reporting (MDR) business in 2021 and with these acquisitions is now positioned as the global market leader in the financial, legal, and professional services markets. TRG Screen's product portfolio includes subscription spend, usage, enquiry and compliance solutions. For more information visit trgscreen.com. Follow TRG Screen on LinkedIn, @TRG Screen, and on Twitter, @trgscreen. About Xpansion Xpansion delivers next-generation reference data solutions that empower financial institutions to streamline their reference data operations, reduce costs, enhance data quality, and improve data discovery. With a focus on customer satisfaction, continuous innovation and quick time to value, Xpansion is a trusted partner for financial institutions in the buy- and sell-side as well as solution providers in the industry.

Read More

Cloud Infrastructure Management

The Manufacturing Sector Experiences More Attacks in the Cloud than Any Other Industry

PR Newswire: | January 19, 2024

Netwrix, a cybersecurity vendor that makes data security easy, today revealed additional findings for the manufacturing sector from its survey of 1,610 IT and security professionals across more than 100 countries. According to the survey, 64% of companies in the manufacturing sector suffered a cyberattack during the preceding 12 months, which is similar to the finding among organizations overall (68%). However, it turned out that the manufacturing sector experiences more cloud infrastructure attacks than any other industry surveyed. Among manufacturing companies that detected an attack, 85% spotted phishing in the cloud compared to only 58% across all verticals; 43% faced user account compromise in the cloud as opposed to 27% among all industries; and 25% dealt with data theft by hackers in the cloud compared to 15% for organizations overall. "The manufacturing sector relies heavily on the cloud to work with their supply chain in real time. This makes their cloud infrastructure a lucrative target for attackers — infiltrating it enables them to move laterally and potentially compromise other linked organizations, as happened to one the world's top meat processing companies. Credential compromise or malware deployed via a phishing email is just the beginning of the attack," says Dirk Schrader, VP of Security Research at Netwrix. "The attack surface in the cloud is always expanding, so it's critical for manufacturing companies to adopt a defense-in-depth approach," adds Ilia Sotnikov, Security Strategist at Netwrix. "First, they must rigorously enforce the principle of least privilege to limit access to sensitive data, which ideally includes just-in-time access to eliminate unnecessary entry points for adversaries. They also need to gain deep visibility into when and how critical data in the cloud is being used so that IT teams can promptly spot potential threats. Finally, they need to be prepared to minimize the damage from incidents by having a comprehensive response strategy that is regularly exercised and updated." To learn more about security trends, check out the complete 2023 Hybrid Security Trends Report. About Netwrix Netwrix makes data security easy. Since 2006, Netwrix solutions have been simplifying the lives of security professionals by enabling them to identify and protect sensitive data to reduce the risk of a breach, and to detect, respond to and recover from attacks, limiting their impact. More than 13,500 organizations worldwide rely on Netwrix solutions to strengthen their security and compliance posture across all three primary attack vectors: data, identity and infrastructure.

Read More

More featured news