Skalar Launches With $125M Plan To Fund Startup Customer

New York-based fintech Skalar publicly launched on Thursday with a plan to finance over $125 million in sales and marketing spending for seven tech companies. The startup, founded in January, is backed by an undisclosed seed round led by São Paulo venture firm Monashees and has a debt financing partnership with General Catalyst's Customer Value Fund.

Skalar provides capital for customer acquisition, which companies repay from the revenue generated by those new customers. If the customers generate less revenue than expected, Skalar absorbs the shortfall instead of demanding full repayment. Co-founder and CEO Sebastián Cárdenas explained the principle to Crunchbase News. "We only get repaid as they get repaid," he said.

How the financing model works

The model ties repayment directly to customer revenue rather than a fixed schedule. Current deals generally call for Skalar to collect about 1.1 times the amount it provides. For example, if a company spends $10 to acquire a customer expected to pay $1 per month for 30 months, Skalar provides the $10 and collects the first $11 generated. Once Skalar reaches that repayment cap, the company keeps all remaining revenue. If the customer cancels after eight months, Skalar collects only $8 and writes off the balance.

Notably, there is no fixed repayment date. Repayment duration matches the time it takes for the company to recoup its acquisition costs from the customer. This flexible timeline is designed to reduce the risk of a cash crunch for the borrowing startup.

Differences from venture debt and revenue-based financing

According to its founders, Skalar's structure differs from both venture debt and traditional revenue-based financing. Venture debt offers flexible funding without equity dilution but carries higher interest and risk. The founders contend that repaying that debt can force startups to cut marketing spend or hold cash during new growth opportunities.

Revenue-based financing typically advances money based on signed contracts or existing revenue. Skalar finances a potential new revenue source before it exists and accepts the risk it may never fully materialize. Taking on this risk requires deep analysis. Skalar examines detailed transaction data on customer acquisition cost, retention, and lifetime value. Co-founder and COO Daniel Castrillón said the system continually updates company assessments. "We have become experts in understanding these types of risks and when they are sufficiently predictable and sufficiently profitable to be underwritable," he told reporters.

Risks and terms for borrowing startups

The arrangement carries risks for founders, concedes Cárdenas. Skalar sets minimum revenue targets. If results fall short, it can require faster repayment or stop providing additional capital, potentially leaving a company without expected funding. Terms are based on estimates involving customer revenue, margins, currency fluctuations, and marketing attribution. If these estimates are wrong or acquisition costs rise, the startup may receive less benefit than expected.

Importantly, Cárdenas said Skalar's agreements do not grant it the right to seize company assets in a default, nor do they require borrowers to maintain specific financial benchmarks. Still, founders must weigh the possibility of accelerated repayment or interrupted funding.

Our structure is fundamentally different because it absorbs most of the downside risk... And we are unlikely to walk away unscathed if something bad happens, Cárdenas said. This incentivizes us to always be mindful of not encumbering the companies we work with with credit risk, as this ultimately increases risk for us.

Target market and initial traction

Skalar targets tech companies spending between $100,000 and $3 million monthly on customer acquisition, with a consistent record of positive unit economics. It also assesses whether a company has enough cash to survive until customer revenue arrives. Its first seven customers include four or five Latin American companies, plus U.S. Businesses. Skalar initially plans to work with no more than 15 companies per year.

The company declined to disclose the size of its seed round, which closed in the first quarter. Cárdenas described it as a large seed round by Latin America's standards. Nido Ventures and several industry angel investors also participated. General Catalyst is providing the debt capital Skalar will use to finance customer spending, though the partnership size was not disclosed.

Origins and investor perspective

Skalar grew from Cárdenas' work as an entrepreneur-in-residence at Monashees, where he introduced portfolio companies to General Catalyst's Customer Value Fund model. Cárdenas said General Catalyst pioneered a similar approach but focused on larger deals, creating an opportunity to serve smaller companies, including Latin American startups.

Andrew Ziperski, partner at the Customer Value Fund, said in a statement that most tech companies in Latin America have never had the choice of matched capital for predictable investments like customer acquisition. Sebastián came to us with that gap in mind, Ziperski said.

Monashees general partner Caio Bolognesi said his firm, Brazil's largest venture firm, has seen companies struggle to secure growth financing as equity investment in the region fluctuated. Skalar fills that gap by giving promising companies access to capital while they build the track record investors want to see, he told reporters. Bolognesi added that Monashees does not have access to the confidential operating data startups provide to Skalar.

**A vision beyond venture-backed startups**

Skalar is initially focused strictly on financing customer acquisition. Its founders eventually envision offering similar products for other business expenses with predictable returns. Cárdenas also sees a longer-term opportunity beyond the small group of companies that attract institutional venture capital. Businesses that struggle to raise venture capital due to location, industry, or growth rate may still qualify based on financial performance.

Venture capital solved the problem of funding the top 1% of tech businesses, Cárdenas said. But 99% of tech businesses, out of which I'd say probably more than half could be underwritten by our product, just don't have access to capital today, and ours is a product that fundamentally changes that.