The company announced its Series B Tuesday (May 9), saying it would let the company “expand its growth efforts and scale its funding capabilities” for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in the eCommerce space.
It will also “implement enhanced financial management capabilities with new banking solutions and cash flow prediction models that will include alerts and insights based on business performance, as part of its quest to become a one-stop shop for ecommerce business management,” the company said in a news release provided to PYMNTS.
“During this period of economic uncertainty, ecommerce businesses are struggling to reach their full potential,” said Yaron Shapira, co-founder and CEO of 8fig. “The global macroeconomic challenges we are experiencing make it difficult for ecommerce business owners to access the resources they need to succeed.”
Founded in 2020, 8fig says it has delivered more than $500 million in finding to online sellers, and has seen its client base and annual revenue grow by a respective 900% and 800% last year.
The funding comes at a time when SMBs are facing shrinking access to capital, as PYMNTS wrote last week.
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“A historically underbanked segment, it is becoming more difficult for SMBs to borrow as the economy tightens and macro conditions worsen,” the report noted.
Meanwhile, ongoing contractions across the Main Street landscape have only placed more pressure on business owners’ working capital and operational cash flow needs, while they contend with both interest rate hikes and rising inflation, all in the wake of surviving the crippling years of the pandemic.
New 2023 research in the PYMNTS/Enigma collaboration, “Main Street Health Q1 2023: Using Finance to Ease Recession Fears,” shows that nearly 3 out of 4 small business have no access to the equivalent of at least 60 days’ worth of revenue in financing, while 17% reported they have no way of securing emergency funds at all.
“Compounding the uphill battle facing SMBs, the turmoil around regional banks has only increased the financing challenge, as lenders have become more cautious about extending capital to SMBs with limited credit history, higher risk profiles, or inadequate collateral due to worries about their own funding and deposits,” PYMNTS wrote.
