Novel secures $15M round in bid to get tech founders the capital to turn their visions into reality 

A fresh injection of capital is expected to help Overland Park-based Novel — helmed by two of Kansas City’s most seasoned tech founders — revolutionize growth for SaaS startups using its Capital Intelligence platform.

“The tech founder’s journey is often fueled by passion but also filled with obstacles,” said Carlos Antequera, CEO and co-founder of Novel, which uses its platform to leverage real-time data and AI to provide analytics, fundraising strategy, and non-dilutive capital to B2B SaaS and tech companies. “Grounded in our own entrepreneurial experiences with fundraising and making capital strategy decisions, Novel’s mission goes deeper than funding — it’s about leveraging technology to guide and support entrepreneurs.”

Novel on Wednesday announced a $15 million oversubscribed pre-Series A round, co-led by IGNIA Partners and Ulu Ventures, to propel the fintech’s expansion of its Capital Intelligence platform. The round also includes participation from MatterScale, Gaingels, as well as such previous investors as Kansas City-based KCRise Fund.

The latest funding round catapults Novel’s total funding to more than $130 million, fueling its mission to transform how tech founders fund and grow their business.

“Ulu is excited to continue our support of the Novel team as they drive sustainable growth in a large and growing market,” said Steve Reale, partner and CFO at Ulu Ventures. “Novel has developed a strong product suite that truly address the needs of the SaaS ecosystem.”

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By harnessing AI, real-time data, and its innovative capital-as-a-service model, the Novel platform equips founders with non-dilutive capital and essential tools for optimizing their capital stack. By making more strategic fundraising decisions, founders are enabled to scale faster and exit better.

“Our Capital Intelligence platform and data-driven approach democratizes access to growth capital and strategic tools, ensuring every tech founder has a greater chance to turn their vision into reality,” said Antequera.

Keith Harrington and Carlos Antequera, Novel Capital

Central to Novel’s offering is its standout Capital-as-a-Service model, a subscription-based capital solution that places control firmly in the hands of founders by eliminating costly transaction, draw, and pre-payment fees, as well as warrants.

“With Novel, you really get the sense that you’re working with fellow entrepreneurs and innovators,” said Adam Little, CFO of Vital Data Technology. “They go deeper than just the numbers to better understand the company, its trajectory, and its market.  Novel is taking a new approach to growth and risk assessment that is highly valuable to SaaS companies.”

Using its proprietary, data-driven scoring model, Novel can quickly assess how much non-dilutive growth capital to provide to a tech company by leveraging their key metrics in real-time, ensuring an accurate estimate that maximizes capital availability, while allowing the company to thrive during repayment. 

To date, Novel has worked with over 350 SaaS companies and provided more than $100 million in non-dilutive funding.

Customers also leverage the Capital Intelligence platform, including their real-time CEO Dashboard, giving founders a bird’s-eye view of their most important metrics; and a Valuation Tool, which allows founders to determine their company’s current worth and benchmark it against thousands of other software companies. Novel’s latest offering, VentureMatch, is a data-driven matchmaking service that directly connects founders with more than 100 world-class partner VC firms for access to equity financing. 

“Having experienced the venture capital world, I’ve learned the crucial role of supportive capital in entrepreneurial success,” said Keith Harrington, COO and co-founder of Novel. “At Novel, our platform not only scales to support thousands of entrepreneurs but also integrates seamlessly into the capital ecosystem. Our goal is not to overshadow traditional funding routes but to enhance them, ensuring that every tech founder has the tools and capital to succeed.”

Thanks to Novel’s innovative business model, the fintech company’s revenue has grown more than 120 percent year-over-year as of 2024’s first quarter. Its leaders project doubling Novel’s growth in the coming year and reaching profitability within the next 18 months — something more and more VCs appreciate in their investments since 2021.  

“As entrepreneurs themselves, [Antequera and Harrington] deeply and uniquely understand the capital challenges of launching, operating, and scaling businesses,” said Christine Kenna, partner at IGNIA. “With Novel’s customer-centric approach, countless startups will thrive, gaining vital access to essential strategy tools. We have the utmost confidence in their ability to transform the funding landscape for entrepreneurs, and we couldn’t be more excited for what the future holds.”