Fundbox

founders: Yuval ariav, tomer michaeli, eyal shinar (ceo)

Equity raised: $108 million Estimated 2017 revenue: $55 million Lead investors: general catalyst, khosla ventures, spark capital

What it does: provides short-term financing to small businesses. fundbox intends to reduce the cash-flow headaches of small companies, both those waiting for payment and those that need shortterm credit to pay what they owe. fundbox started as an invoicefinancing company, lending money to small businesses against their accounts receivables at rates lower than those for cash advances and without prepayment penalties. its new model, expected to launch in 2018, is meant to work like a credit card for businessto-business transactions. a company that owes money has fundbox pay the invoice. the company that is owed gets its cash immediately (minus a small interchange fee). meanwhile, the first company has 60 days to repay fundbox before being charged interest. with u.s. businesses doing some $41 trillion in business-to-business transactions a year, the potential market is enormous, but setting up such

a network is hard. fundbox’s success depends on the accuracy of its big-data-driven credit analysis. shinar, an israeli immigrant who has an m.b.a. from the university of pennsylvania and previously worked at battery ventures, has been testing his approach for four years. fundbox’s loss rate, he says, is currently around 1% and declining every month.