Vancouver-based Progressa, a short-term lending platform, has closed an $84 million equity and loan funding round.
The equity funding round was co-led by Canaccord Genuity and Gravitas Securities, with participation from Eight Capital and Paradigm Capital.
Progressa has developed a lending platform to help paycheque-to-paycheque Canadians access and build credit. The company says it uses non-traditional credit evaluation techniques to help enterprise businesses access loans and protect their brand reputations.
“Progressa has proven to be a leader in serving Canadian unbanked and underbanked consumers with their highly successful instalment loan program.”
“Progressa is proud to have developed first-to-market technology solutions for the Canadian non-prime credit consumer market,” said Ali Pourdad, CEO and co-founder of Progressa. “Today’s enterprise business partners are utilizing the company’s Powered by Progressa solutions to improve their customer experience, while enhancing collections recoveries and mitigating significant risk, a true win for both enterprise and Canadian consumers. We are pleased with this broad level of support from Canadian investment banks who see that Progressa is making a positive difference in the lives of Canadians.”
Progressa said the latest funding round is expected to be its last private round as the company is preparing for an IPO before the end of 2019. Progressa plans to use the equity funding to develop a loan-purchasing program for up to $72 million with the Vancouver-based credit fund Cypress Hills Partners.
The company will also use the additional lending capacity to onboard new bank partners and work towards its goal of helping Canadians enhance their financial situations.
“Cypress Hills Partners is proud to have been a part of Progressa’s impressive growth over the past 3 years and is excited by our continued financial relationship,” said Kelly Klatik, managing partner at Cypress Hills Partners. “Progressa has proven to be a leader in serving Canadian unbanked and underbanked consumers with their highly successful instalment loan program. They have demonstrated steady and continued growth in consumer underwriting practices and significant advancement in their adjudication technology required to further scale their lending business. We are proud to work with them as they continue their expansion and innovation in the Canadian FinTech industry.”
Progressa expects to have $100 million of loan funding before the end of 2018. The company currently has over 100 employees across offices in Vancouver and Toronto. In December 2015, Progressa closed an $11.4 million Series A, led by Cypress Hills Partners and Conconi Growth Partners, and in March 2016, the company partnered with Alpine Credits.
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