Just months after securing series A financing, Equipifi has new office space in the Valley.
The financial technology company, which is working on its Buy Now, Pay Later software, has a new 5,000-square-foot space at Tower at Scottsdale Landing, at 8660 E. Hartford Drive.
Equipifi CFO Colleen Shannon said the space is ideal for the company's startup status — not just in terms of size, but the short-term flexibility of 16 months by way of a sublease. Equipifi is subleasing the space from Infor and didn't need to worry about furniture, which was another plus for the company.
"There aren't a lot of smaller subleases on the market, especially up here in north Scottsdale. A lot of what we were looking at were spaces that needed to be built out," she said. "The lease is only 16 months, which for a startup is great because you don't want to tie yourself into a long lease when your needs are going to change."
The company previously worked out of a space at AZ CoWork nearby at 13835 N. Northsight Blvd. in north Scottsdale.
Equipifi, named in January as an AZ Inno Startup to Watch, was formed in September 2021. It currently has 30 employees and looks to grow the team in the near future. The new space houses all of its engineers and is available for all its Arizona employees.
"We wanted to have a space where people can come and collaborate," Shannon said. "You can be remote, hybrid or in the office. But this allows employees to have their own space whereas in the co-working environment, we had a couple of rooms, but this is much easier to have the team together.
Equipifi raises $12 million
The startup raised $12 million in series A financing earlier this year. Shannon said the company is still pre-revenue, so it still is looking to launch its software over the next few months.
The number of people using Buy Now, Pay Later options at checkout is expected to grow dramatically in coming years, but its popularity has already inspired calls for greater regulation. BNPL options are most popular with young people and people with lower incomes and BNPL is not regulated as tightly as older payment options.
Equipifi will work directly with financial institutions, primarily credit unions, to use its Buy Now, Pay Later software. The software is designed to give financial institutions' customers flexibility with a microloan as opposed to paying a large up-front cost.
The company worked with CBRE Group Inc.'s Kevin Calihan and Tim Kempton for finding a new space. CBRE spoke with the Business Journal this summer amid a record amount of office sublease space available. Phoenix had more than 5 million square feet of sublease space on the market as of June, which was a more than 200% increase since May 2020.
A high-mark sublease is in the quality of the build-out, how old the building is, existing infrastructure like furniture and a "sweet spot" of lease term remaining. CBRE's Charlie von Arentschildt said that sweet spot generally is around three to five years, with a shorter lease potentially meaning an impending move and anything longer possibly scaring away a prospect.
