Hum Investor Spotlight: Montage Capital
Our Investor Spotlight series features leaders and executives from notable debt and equity investors who have successfully funded companies via Hum’s Intelligent Capital Market. Each Q&A will discuss their investment strategy, how they partner with companies, and why they chose to utilize Hum to personalize their deal flow.
Chet Kasper is a Principal at Montage Capital, a leading provider of minimally dilutive debt to emerging growth companies. Montage’s financing solution allows founders and management teams to maintain control and ownership of their company, while obtaining growth capital.
In this Q&A, we chat with Chet on what makes Montage unique in the lending space, their experience on Hum’s ICM platform, and the company’s Social Impact Fund.
Q: Thanks for taking the time! First, can you share a little bit of background on Montage Capital and its investment strategy & focus?
Montage Capital was founded in 2005 with the mission to provide a capital option for entrepreneurs and companies looking to accelerate revenue growth while minimizing dilution. We focus on providing term debt to growing, capital efficient businesses with at least $3M in revenue. We are industry agnostic and seek companies with predictable revenue streams, good margins, and strong management teams.
Q: As a founder/CEO looking for growth funding, what makes Montage’s capital offering unique in the venture debt landscape?
Unlike traditional venture debt, prior equity support is not a prerequisite to partner with Montage. In fact, most companies we work with have not raised a recent or institutional equity round prior to partnering with us, and wouldn’t be good candidates for venture debt. That’s why we describe our offering as growth debt and position it as an alternative to equity financing.
Q: How were you introduced to Hum Capital and its funding platform, the Intelligent Capital Market?
We were introduced to Hum through a mutual connection with one of your Managing Directors who was looking to expand the ecosystem of debt providers on the Intelligent Capital Market platform.
Q: Why were you and the team attracted to Hum’s ICM and the real-time company data & insights it can provide to investors? What stood out most about the platform?
We are always looking for introductions to high quality opportunities, and right off the bat the platform impressed us with its ability to introduce us to companies and situations that fit our investment profile. I would say what stands out most about the platform is 1) the quality of the companies Hum attracts, and 2) the way the historical financials are standardized, making it easy to quickly assess the financial profile of the opportunity.
Q: Can you talk a little bit about Montage’s Social Impact Fund and the impetus to forming the Fund and its overall mission?
The Social Impact Fund was formed to invest in companies that are trying to not only build shareholder value, but also deliver a positive societal impact through their products and/or services. We’ve done deals in a variety of industries including solar energy, edtech, and health & wellness to name a few. The impetus for the fund came from this trend we were seeing of both investors and entrepreneurs looking to build companies that help society, but were ultimately going to be sustainable because they also create financial value.
Q: How many companies has Montage funded thus far via Hum’s ICM? Can you talk about what was notable regarding those companies and how they fit Montage’s investment thesis?
So far, we funded one company via the platform, but we have several promising discussions ongoing that came from Hum’s ICM. What has been notable regarding the connections has been the quality of the opportunities and how well they match our investment criteria. You can tell the platform does a great job filtering to make sure both parties are making meaningful, productive connections.
This testimonial may not represent the experience of all clients and is not indicative of future performance or success.
