Progressa Closes $84 Million Funding Round Co-Led by Canaccord Genuity and Gravitas Securities, Supporting Record Growth
TORONTO, Aug. 14, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Progressa, a Vancouver and Toronto based financial technology company, announced today it has successfully closed an $84 million equity and loan funding round. The equity financing was co-led by Canaccord Genuity Corp. and Gravitas Securities Inc. and included Eight Capital and Paradigm Capital as part of the syndicate. The equity capital allows Progressa to unlock a new forward-flow whole loan purchasing program for up to $72 million, with Vancouver-based credit fund Cypress Hills Partners.
The equity financing was largely supported by the Canadian investment banks who see the potential for Progressa to complete a go-public transaction (“IPO”) before the end of 2019. Ali Pourdad, Progressa’s co-founder and CEO, commented, “Progressa is proud to have developed first-to-market technology solutions for the Canadian non-prime credit consumer market. 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.”
This latest financing round is anticipated to be Progressa’s last private round, as it has now raised over $15 million of equity capital since inception and begins to prepare for an IPO. Kia Besharat, Senior Managing Director and Head of Capital Markets Origination at Gravitas Securities commented, “We are incredibly excited to have supported Progressa over both its bridge and pre-IPO rounds in 2017 and 2018. Ali has assembled a world-class management team and has operated the business like a public company for as long as we have been working with him. We look forward to continue watching Progressa’s success in tackling the vastly underserved collections debt and retail point-of-sale finance market in Canada.” Gravitas has acted as Exclusive Financial Advisor to Progressa since May of 2016.
In the past 5 years, Progressa has established itself as a market leader in Canada by developing innovative software solutions for enterprise business that tackles a traditionally negative collections process in a positive and socially responsible way. Progressa’s solutions ultimately protect the enterprises’ brand reputation, among other things, utilizing non-traditional credit evaluation techniques to improve lending outcomes. With additional lending capacity, the Company can onboard new banking partners and continue on its mission to help Canadians borrow for the right reasons and improve their financial well-being.
Miller Thomson LLP, a leading national law firm with expertise in, among other things, technology and financial services, assisted with the legal aspects of the Company’s equity round and loan purchasing program. Kevin Refah, who is the lead relationship partner for Progressa, commented, “Progressa’s new financial capacity will help position it well to continue its ascent in the Canadian FinTech space, and we certainly look forward to continuing to support Progressa and its excellent management team on the company’s impressive growth trajectory.”
“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. Progressa has proven to be a leader in serving Canadian unbanked and underbanked consumers with their highly successful instalment loan program,” said Kelly Klatik, Managing Partner with Cypress Hills Partners. “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 is experiencing a truly transformative year, expected to near $100 million of loan funding before the end of 2018. With offices in Vancouver and Toronto, the Company has over 100 team members and continues to make significant investments in its proprietary credit score that drives all of its enterprise software solutions.
About Progressa
Named by CB Insights in 2017 as one of 38 companies in the world helping the underbanked, Progressa is Canada’s fastest growing financial technology lender focused on changing the way pay cheque to pay cheque Canadians access and build credit. Since 2013, our mission has been to build a socially responsible consumer finance company that encourages borrowing for the right reasons and that Canadians can be proud of. Our enterprise solutions suite, driven by the 4th Generation Progressa Score™, is built for collection agencies and point of sale finance.
We empower collection agencies to offer proactive solutions and drive healthy recoveries while protecting brand reputation with industry leading NPS and servicing. For point of sale finance we allow platform partners and other originators to expand their merchant offerings to service non-prime consumers and achieve industry leading approval rates.
Learn more: progressa.com
About Gravitas Securities
Gravitas Securities is a leading wealth management and capital markets firm comprised of tactical individuals known for their sophisticated sector expertise, commitment to excellence, and a global platform committed to integration and innovation. Gravitas provides a wide range of investment services for retail and corporate clients globally with offices in Toronto and Vancouver and is represented in the United States through its FINRA representative, Gravitas Capital International, in New York.
About Cypress Hills Partners
Cypress Hills Partners is a boutique alternative merchant banking firm based out of Vancouver and is a leading provider of funding in the alternative credit space in Canada. The company specializes in the origination of specialty private debt and other uniquely structured products, including; whole loan purchases, SME loans, advances against corporate trade receivables, senior secured loans, regulatory capital, and mezzanine debt.
About Miller Thomson LLP
Miller Thomson LLP is a national business law firm with more than 525 lawyers working from 12 offices across Canada. The firm offers a complete range of business law, advocacy and personal legal services. Miller Thomson works regularly with in-house legal departments and external counsel worldwide to facilitate cross-border and multinational transactions and business needs. Miller Thomson offices are located in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, Saskatoon, London, Kitchener-Waterloo, Guelph, Toronto, Markham, Vaughan and Montréal.
Learn more: millerthomson.com
Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains”forward-looking statements” within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the timing of an IPO. Forward looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by management, are inherently subject to significant business,economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual financial results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the estimated future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by those forward-looking statements and the forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. Progressa’s growth, its ability to expand into new products and markets and its expectations for its financial performance for 2018 are subject to a number of conditions, many of which are outside of Progressa’s control. Except as required by law, Progressa disclaims any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information,events or otherwise.
Contacts:
Progressa
Ali Pourdad, CPA, CA
Co-Founder & CEO
[email protected]
604.424.8942
