How Hum Capital & Capchase’s Partnership Helped SetSchedule Revolutionize Real Estate
The rise of SaaS and cloud-based technologies has made it easier than ever before to build a transformational business. While capital to help grow these businesses is abundant, the fundraising process is inefficient, lacking in transparency, and often a barrier for potential growth. The rise of alternative capital providers offering newer startup financing options and a more accessible fundraising process, has opened the doors for more companies to pursue their “big idea.” In this blog series, two of the leading data-driven funding platforms, Hum Capital and Capchase, detail how they’ve worked together to help companies successfully fundraise to scale.
Who is SetSchedule?
Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Irvine, California, SetSchedule is a technology company that focuses on real estate information SaaS products, consumer cloud communication products, artificial intelligence, and autonomous business flow applications. Some of the company’s key products and applications include the SetSchedule App, SetHello, SetValue, SetAds, Referral Radar, and Jessica 2.0.
Since its inception, SetSchedule has helped facilitate 3.5 billion transactions between real estate agents and home shoppers, with 1.5 billion of these occurring since 2020, representing monumental recent growth. Additionally, SetSchedule has been featured on the Inc. 5000 for three consecutive years, ranked 184th on Forbes’ 2021 America’s Best Startup Employers list, and on Comparably’s 2021 list of best company cultures for small/mid-size companies.
Securing Funding Outside of Silicon Valley
SetSchedule’s growth, combined with product innovation and an influx of new talent, led them to explore startup financing to continue scaling and meet their ambitious growth plans.
But the barriers to product creation in the product tech industry were high: they needed to invest heavily in research and development, requiring significant human capital investment.
Because of these uncertainties, securing funding as a minority and geographic outsider to the Silicon Valley scene was extremely difficult. SetSchedule spoke to multiple institutions: VCs, private equity, debt financing, and more, yet none were what they were looking for.
SetSchedule sought to pursue a fundraising option that accurately met their long-term growth needs and simultaneously form a valuable, company-investor partnership for ongoing capital.
Hum Capital and Data-Driven Fundraising
Hum Capital, the company behind the data-driven funding platform connecting great companies to the right capital, first connected with SetSchedule in spring 2021 via outreach from Hum’s Investment Team. The Intelligent Capital Market (ICM), Hum’s funding platform, introduces companies to potential investors by putting their financial data to work. Through data connectors, companies can connect their SaaS systems to the ICM to analyze their financial performance, and Hum takes care of the rest, taking that data and using AI and machine learning to identify startup financing options.
Needing capital for further app development and an increase in sales and marketing spend for customer acquisition, SetSchedule was eager to match with potential investors. Utilizing the ICM, SetSchedule connected their corporate QuickBooks account to accelerate the fundraising process. For SetSchedule, debt financing was the most attractive capital source because they were looking to minimize dilution and utilize their current finances to expand the company and platform. SetSchedule’s COO Udi Dorner said, “Hum’s platform allows us to see our company’s full picture and is a true differentiator in helping to streamline the fundraising process. As a company whose financing needs change daily, being on the Intelligent Capital Market gives us the opportunity to connect with all types of investors suitable for our current growth needs.”
On the ICM, SetSchedule matched with multiple debt-focused investors during their 2021 fundraising process. One of those “investors” was Capchase, a platform for recurring-revenue companies to secure non-dilutive capital. Companies that get funded by Capchase are able to secure funding quicker than traditional investors and keep a higher percentage of their ownership. With Hum’s recommendation and Capchase’s efficient funding method, SetSchedule was on a path to achieve its growth plans.
SetSchedule & Capchase: An Investor Match
Capchase was able to evaluate and provide funding to SetSchedule in a direct, transparent manner, cutting out inefficiencies and making for a better investment. Once SetSchedule became a proven success in the real estate space, the company wanted to address the core problem that companies often encounter – the need for a platform that allows users to truly communicate their message to the proper audience. This required additional capital as they continued to address the needs of solopreneurs, small businesses, and large enterprise-level services.
Working together with Capchase, SetSchedule was able to break past the traditional barriers to entry for tech companies, allowing the company to continue to grow even during the COVID-19 pandemic, and expand its SaaS solutions beyond the real estate space: “it’s been a true pleasure to work with Capchase, partnering with us, following our financial journey, allowing us to really excel – at a pace that’s very unique in the financial industry.”
The Future of Fundraising
Hum Capital and Capchase’s funding partnership with SetSchedule signifies that the future of fundraising is both data-driven and focused on the best interests of the company and founder. In the case of SetSchedule, they were looking for a non-dilutive financing option to maintain company ownership and value, and find a repeatable capital partner. Both teams and fundraising platforms are thrilled to watch Set Schedules continued growth and are excited to partner again on future startup financing rounds.
Thank you to our partners at Capchase. You can learn more about Capchase here.
