Techstars-backed startup to expand digital lending service for tenants of WeWork and other coworking office providers nationwide.
NEW YORK, Aug. 28, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Salaryo, a pioneering fintech platform for U.S. freelancers and startups, today announced it has raised $5.5 million in new funding from Ruby Ventures and Michael Ullmann’s investment group, bringing the total funding to $6.3 million. The company plans to use the funds to scale its first-to-market digital lending service for entrepreneurs and freelancers to over 500 coworking office locations across 20 new cities including Washington DC, Austin and Denver.
Salaryo provides security deposit financing for new coworking office members and a flexible credit line for existing shared office tenants. Since launching its offering in 2018 in New York City, the company has successfully provided hundreds of entrepreneurs and freelancers with easier access to shared workspaces including WeWork, Industrious, Office Evolution, The Yard and others. Salaryo’s service provides cash relief for tenants, which helps flexible workspace operators boost membership sign ups and retention while reducing back-office bottlenecks from processing payments.
“Salaryo’s latest round of funding is a vote of confidence for the shared workspace industry and will enable us to remove the biggest concern for our customers – cash flow – so that they can focus on growing their business,” said Yair Levy CEO and co-founder of Salaryo. “Our goal is to support freelancers and entrepreneurs in taking their first steps by helping them afford an office space. The benefits of shared workspaces make access to them a fundamental way for people to do their best work. Even if a business is already settled in a coworking space, Salaryo will foster its growth by providing affordable and flexible credit on-demand.”
The Salaryo platform is the first digital lending option specializing in the coworking office sector. It features an automated experience that analyzes a tenant’s identity, lease, financial and professional information to make a decision in minutes. Once approved, Salaryo sends funds to the workspace and the tenant can move in within 24 hours.
“The innovative and dynamic Salaryo leadership team was quick to identify changes in the commercial real estate market,” said Ilan Rubinstein of Ruby Ventures. “We are very pleased to join forces with them, as we see the potential for this category to become a new asset class.”
The flexible office sector is experiencing double-digit annual growth and increased interest from large institutional investors, with WeWork’s IPO and two new funding rounds from competitors Knotel and Industrious announced in the last week. For years, WeWork and other leading flexible workspace providers have been toying with the idea of offering their tenants exclusive financial services. In the meantime, Salaryo has perfected this concept and is ready to scale its platform nationwide.
“The growing number of freelancers and small businesses requires new way of thinking in financial services,” said Michael Ullmann. “By financially supporting these entrepreneurs early on, Salaryo is well positioned to offer them additional financial services as they grow.”
This new financing round is composed of both debt and equity financing reaching a total of $5.5 million. Canadian real estate and technology investment firm Ruby Ventures provided the debt financing, while Michael Ullmann’s investment group supplied the equity.
About Salaryo
Salaryo is a fintech startup that provides financial flexibility to freelancers and entrepreneurs. Founded in 2017, the company provides security deposit financing and a flexible credit line to help small businesses gain easier access to office spaces. Since launching its offering in 2018 in New York City, the company has helped hundreds of entrepreneurs and freelancers, and its financing services is now supports tenants of 30 flexible workspace providers, including: WeWork, Industrious, Office Evolution and The Yard, spread across 500 locations in more than 20 cities in the US. Headquartered in New York City with an R&D center in Tel Aviv, Salaryo graduated from the Barclays Techstars fintech accelerator in 2017.
About Ruby Ventures
Ruby Ventures is a diversified investment company owned and managed by the Rubinstein family of Canada and Israel. The family is a founding partner in the well known and highly regarded Toronto-based real estate firm of H&R Developments. While boasting a variety of investments, Ruby Ventures mainly focuses on innovative real estate and groundbreaking technology. It is primarily within these industries that Ruby Ventures leverages its extensive experience and a network of contacts to identify and participate in exceptional investment opportunities.
About Michael Ullmann
Michael Ullman is a serial entrepreneur and venture capital investor. He has invested in and been a stakeholder in more than 50 companies. He is the founding chairman of Prodigy Finance, a fintech platform which focuses on financing international MBA students.
