Now Raises $9.5M in Series A Funding To Help B2B Companies Automate The Painful and Slow Process of Collecting Invoices and Gets Companies Paid in 2 Business Days vs. 90-120 Days

ATLANTA, GA (June 9, 2021) – Now®️ announced  it has secured $9.5MM in funding, led by Virgo Investment Group, with participation from Cresset Capital Partners. Now®️ has built NowAccount®, one of the first payment solutions that allows B2B companies to get paid immediately while enabling a businesses’ customers to pay later. The funding will be used to scale the company’s technical platform. Central to Now’s success, this platform continuously learns by aggregating data and risk management based on 10 years of invoice payments across more than 1,000 businesses and $700MM in invoice payments. 

B2B’s Sell Now, Get Paid Now; Your Customer Buys Now, Pays Later

NowAccount®️ is an accelerated invoice payment solution. Any qualified B2B business in the US generating up to $50MM in revenue gets paid within two business days, with a 2.5%-5% service fee, upon verification.

How NowAccount®️ works for businesses:

• A business delivers goods/services to its customer.

• Then submits the invoice, which is processed, confirmed, and approved for acceleration through their NowAccount®️.

• Upon approval, Now®️ pays the business 100% of their invoice amount.

• The business’ customer pays the business how and when they normally would and remits the payment to a lockbox or account at Now®️.

Born From Personal Experience for the Benefit of Others

Lara O’Connor Hodgson and Stacey Abrams are serial co-founders whose seventeen-year relationship has also included two previous startups, Insomnia Consulting and Nourish. Now®️ is their third startup together and is a solution to their personal frustrations in slow and delayed payments for services and products. 

Having direct experience running a consumer products company, they felt the impact of getting a big order from a national retailer that wanted Net-30 terms but ended up paying Net-60. The delay limited the company’s ability to grow and they decided to create a solution that enabled small businesses to get paid faster without having to turn to risky loans and factoring. Inspired by the way retailers get paid immediately when they accept credit cards, Now®️ built a payments solution to solve the cash flow problem for businesses. 

Small Businesses are Actually the Biggest Free Banks in America  

Every time a business sends an invoice to its customers, they are locking up potential cash flow because it takes time (often months) before that invoice is paid. At any given time, there are billions of dollars in unpaid invoices in the B2B space in the US.This ‘invoice economy’ represents a significant, but often hidden, portion of the U.S. economy.  During the COVID-19 pandemic, customers have roughly doubled the length of their payment terms with their suppliers - meaning companies want to take longer to pay. Pre-COVID, it took B2B companies 48 days to collect account receivables on a Net-30 invoice, and when the COVID-19 pandemic hit it ballooned to over 70 days. 

“When we think of lenders, we think of financial institutions like banks and when we think of borrowers, we think of small businesses; however, small businesses in the US lend more than they ever borrow and are the largest source of lending due to delivering products and waiting 30 days or more (sometimes much more) for payment,” said Stacey Abrams, Co-Founder of Now®️. “My Co-founder Lara O’Connor Hodgson and I founded Now®️ to give businesses who use invoices the same opportunity the credit card system provided for retailers by paying them immediately and helping them grow fearlessly.”

For decades, retailers used to be in the invoice economy - until the credit card system allowed retailers to change the way they got paid. That’s what Now®️ is doing for SMBs/B2Bs. 

“I run a large consulting firm that provides management training to large transportation and government agencies. When I was ready to launch a second product, I needed capital,” said Sheila Jordan, CEO of Knowledge Architects. “As soon as I signed up with Now®️, I was able to access my own company’s operating capital consistently, which helped us grow from $1.5 million to $18 million revenue in two years.”

To learn more about how Now®️ can help your business grow visit https://nowcorp.com/.

Clarification: Cresset Capital Partners is not affiliated with Chicago-based private wealth manager Cresset. Chicago-based Cresset and its affiliates did not participate in the funding.

About Now

NowAccount® is an invoice payment solution that redefines how and when businesses get paid. Headquartered in Atlanta, GA, Now® was created by serial entrepreneurs who felt the pain of waiting on invoice payments from larger customers.  Now’s mission is to empower businesses to grow fearlessly through accelerated invoice payments. Inspired by the credit card system, NowAccount allows you to get paid immediately on your invoice while allowing your customers the flexibility to pay later.  Now’s vision is to create a world where diverse businesses of all sizes have access to capital, commerce, and customer opportunities. 

Contact Information

Rick Liebling

Account Manager

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nowcorp@vsc.co