Going global with capital efficiency

Gilion operates under bank secrecy, all of our clients identity and financial details are strictly protected. This case details the deal of a B2B SAAS who sought their first ever external capital injection.

Ticket Size

€ 2,000,000

Business model

B2B HR SAAS

Founded

2015

Funding

Equity funding , Gilion Loan

Active markets

Europe

HQ

Berlin

Process

4 weeks

“Debt is rarely thought of as a means to fund expansion. But there are clear benefits; there’s no demand to blitz scale and it’s often cheaper in the long run.”

– Marcus Östman, Investment Manager Gilion

Growth strengths

This business is characterised by few customers, long sale cycles and long contracts. Their customers are slow moving and quite traditional institutions and customer acquisition is mainly sales driven. Their strengths lie in product stickiness, showcasing close to 100% retention, reflecting years of product-market fit iteration.

Fundraising history

Founded in 2016, the founders decided to raise €10m in equity in 2017 and have since been more or less cashflow neutral.

Capital use case

This business had modest, but stable growth. In 2022 they were out of liquidity with the option of turning profitable but wanted to invest in global expansion. External capital was needed to invest in sales and customer success.

Why Gilion

In this case equity funding would have been more expensive than the interest rates of a loan. But since they were not cash flow positive, a bank loan was out of the question. The founders wanted to opt for a fully non-dilutive option, without warrants or convertibles featured in venture debt credits. Hence an Gilion Growth Loan was the perfect fit.