San Francisco — March 22, 2021 — Espresso Capital announced today that it has provided a $6 million credit facility to Bento for Business, a leading expense management platform designed to simplify and consolidate complex financial services for the SMB segment. The company will use the funds to make strategic enhancements to its platform while scaling the organization.
“With the financing from Espresso, we’re able to look at new ways to penetrate the market and extend our role as a leader in the sector,” says Bento CEO Guido Schulz. “We’re also making a considerable investment in product enhancements that will allow us to target larger SMB clients.”
Among those product enhancements are fixed value card and bulk administration functionality, both of which will round out the platform as the company goes after larger clients. In the process, the new functionality will help further cement Bento as a best of breed spend management solution for mid-market customers.
“Bento really stood out to us because of its robust, flexible, and highly scalable platform,” said Espresso Director Mark Gilbert. “We think that Bento has the team and product in place to attack the massive addressable market in front of them and deliver significant growth.”
“We’re excited to welcome Espresso to the Bento family as a key source of capital for strategic growth,” said Kelly Ford Buckley, General Partner at Edison Partners, one of the company’s existing investors. “Espresso has been great to work with throughout this process and will play an important role in helping Bento scale its go-to-market efforts.”
Other existing investors include Blumberg Capital and Comcast Ventures.
Speaking to why he chose Espresso, Schulz noted, “Espresso is different from other lenders we’ve encountered in our space. They’re true partners who took the time to understand our business model and have demonstrated a real interest in our success. We appreciate the highly collaborative approach they’ve brought to structuring this deal.”
About Bento for Business
Bento for Business is dedicated to modernizing the way small and mid-size businesses manage and unlock value from their working capital. Bento is the partner of choice for businesses that want a modular financial operating platform for their cash flow and spend management needs. Bento’s strategic partners also expand to the banks, payment networks and processors that want to provide digital treasury management and business banking suite options for their customers. Co-located in Chicago and San Francisco, Bento is an award-winning SMB fintech solution led by veteran financial service executives and backed by leading financial technology investors. For additional information, visit Bento for Business, Twitter and LinkedIn.
About Edison Partners
For 35 years, Edison Partners has been helping CEOs and their executive teams grow and scale successful companies. The firm’s investment team brings extensive investing and operating experience to each investment. Through a unique combination of growth capital and the Edison Edge platform, consisting of operating centers of excellence, the Edison Director Network, and executive education programs, Edison employs a truly integrated approach to accelerating growth and creating value for technology businesses. A team of experts in enterprise solutions, financial technology, and healthcare IT sectors, Edison targets high-growth companies with $10 to $30 million in revenue; investments also include buyouts, recapitalizations, spinouts and secondary stock purchases.
Edison’s active portfolio has created aggregated market value exceeding $10 billion. Edison Partners is based in Princeton, NJ and manages more than $1.6 billion in assets throughout the eastern United States.
About Espresso Capital
Espresso empowers companies with innovative venture debt solutions. Since 2009, we’ve helped more than 280 technology companies and their investors accelerate growth, extend runway, and increase strategic flexibility with non-dilutive capital. Learn more at www.espressocapital.com.
