BREAKING: C2FO closes $200M investment led by backer of WeWork, Uber, Slack

August 7, 2019  |  Startland News Staff

Sandy Kemper, C2FO

Startup giant C2FO continues its climb to the top, having secured a new $200 million investment — and doubling the amount of its once-record funding raise in fewer than two years. 

“We are very fortunate to have a team who, for years, has delivered industry-leading unit economics, extraordinary customer satisfaction, and strong global growth,” Sandy Kemper, C2FO founder and CEO, said in a release Wednesday.

Updated: Click here to read more of Kemper’s thoughts on the massive funding round, including C2FO’s big challenge: proving it’s worth of Kansas City’s biggest investments.

The chart smashing round — believed to be the largest yet for a venture capital-backed startup in Kansas City — was led by the $108 billion SoftBank Vision Fund, which also has stakes in WeWork, Uber, Slack and DoorDash. The investment places Nahoko Hoshino, vice president of investment at SoftBank Investment Advisers, on the C2FO board of directors. 

Click here to read about C2FO’s previous record setting, $100 million funding round.

John Buttrick, Union Square Ventures

John Buttrick, Union Square Ventures

Investment firms Temasek and Union Square Ventures returned to the table and placed new bets on C2FO, the company said of the round’s additional participants. 

“This infusion of capital from the Vision Fund and existing investors will be used to further our expansion as we strive to build a new world wherein the increased liquidity provided by the C2FO platform helps companies and in turn, entire economies, grow more rapidly,” Kemper said. 

Streamlining the world of working capital, C2FO’s online marketplace has amassed over 300,000 clients in 173 countries — helping them control their cash flow and manage more than $1 billion in funding on a weekly basis, the company explained. 

Such reach and the ability to shake the industry helped attract SoftBank to the energy-rich startup, said Ashkay Naheta, managing partner. 

“We invested in C2FO because we think their disruptive innovation offers a solution to an industry that has traditionally lacked cost-efficient alternatives for businesses of all sizes looking to free up cash quickly,” Naheta said.

Cash injections and the ability to rapidly scale wouldn’t be possible without the C2FO team, Kemper noted. 

 “Due to their work, we have now grown to match over $1.2 trillion of accounts receivable and accounts payable,” he said.

SoftBank believes C2FO and its leaders are equipped with vision that could help the company — which is expected to reach a $1 billion valuation — become the global exchange for working capital, Naheta said. 

Startland will have more on this story as it develops.

startland-tip-jar

TIP JAR

Did you enjoy this post? Show your support by becoming a member or buying us a coffee.

2019 Startups to Watch

    stats here

    Related Posts on Startland News

    Blockchain KC event aims to put Kansas City on the map for crypto thought leadership

    By Tommy Felts | April 11, 2019

    Kansas City is running low on blockchain-fueled innovation, said Shekhar Gupta. “I want to see Kansas City as one of the top places where people think about blockchain,” said Gupta, chief technology officer of Overland Park-based SaaS firm Asuun, and organizer of the inaugural Blockchain KC conference. “I have a big map on my wall…

    Nipsey Hussle Kansas City

    ‘Heartbreaking but empowering’: Nipsey Hussle’s life, death inspire entrepreneurs to action

    By Tommy Felts | April 11, 2019

    The Marathon will continue, Wesley Hamilton said, echoing tens of thousands of mourners now pledging to keep alive the transcendent entrepreneurial spirit of rapper-turned-community leader Nipsey Hussle. Hamilton, founder and executive director of the KC-based nonprofit The Disabled But Not Really Foundation, was among a dozen or more Kansas City entrepreneurs in Los Angeles Thursday…

    Kyle Smith, Determination, Incorporated

    Inmate to business founder: Determination, Incorporated adds partner with lived experience

    By Tommy Felts | April 10, 2019

    Determination, Incorporated’s new partner in compassion places a new lens on the impact the prison-to-founder non-profit could have, said Kyle Smith. “I’ve gotten this non-profit this far, but I can’t do it alone,” said Smith, founder of Determination, Incorporated, which uses entrepreneurship to curate new opportunities for formerly incarcerated people, on the addition of his…

    Entrepreneurs podcast

    How entrepreneurs are using podcasts to become thought leaders, empower founders

    By Tommy Felts | April 10, 2019

    Audiences are moving from eyeballs to eardrums, said Addison Price, and entrepreneurs need to evolve their messaging to compete in a new arena of online engagement. “What’s going to happen when Instagram just isn’t Instagram anymore? What’s going to happen when your Facebook audience just migrates someplace else? Because it will happen,” said Price, podcast…