Florida Funders, the Tampa hybrid venture capital-angel network investment firm, led a series A funding round of debt and equity to Flex, a finance app.
The deal closed Tuesday with debt financing of $100 million from Community Investment Management, with Florida Funders leading a $20 million capital equity investment. Other firms, such as Home Depot VenturesTM, MS&AD Ventures and Companyon Ventures, participated in the capital equity investment.
Flex is a Miami-based finance technology company that sells small businesses low-interest credit and other financial tools.
Zaid Rahman, the founder and CEO of Flex, said that with this round, he didn't want to "play the logo and brand game" by speaking to dozens of investors for funding, which can complicate relationships and board dynamics.
"I really, in this company, wanted to be methodical and prioritize getting the best possible partner on board, and so when Saxon [Baum] said he'd like to lead the round, I was super excited about it," Rahman said.
Baum is the first outside board director of the company, and Rahman has worked with him in the past.
Florida Funders is also attractive to Rahman in the broader context of the venture capital community. He said it isn't common to find local firms catching the attention of New York- and San Francisco-based firms.
"Suddenly, you're seeing [Florida Funders] produce results, and it's incredible the types of portfolio companies Florida Funders has," Rahman said. "Over the next five to 10 years, the [distributed to paid-in capital] that they will generate, the dollars that are returned to their investors, will speak for itself, not only about their kind of thought process and kind of investment rigor but also speak about how great the Florida ecosystem is from an investing perspective."
Florida Funders announced a separate investment in Betr in the same Wednesday release, adding to its previous investment into the sports betting program. Jake Paul, an internet celebrity, co-founded Betr.
"This is the third investment we have made into Betr and the second into Flex. The growth we have seen from these companies since our initial investment is exactly what we look for in our portfolio companies. We anticipate these companies to be two leaders of the Miami tech scene, as well as Lula, another FL Funders portfolio company," Baum, a partner at Florida Funders, said in a prepared statement.
Florida Funders has fully raised and invested its first fund and closed a second $60 million fund last year. It has made over 48 investments from the second fund, according to the release.
