Milwaukee and Madison-based startup BankMyBiz.com has launched a $500,000 seed round to fund its growth.
The website, which connects businesses with lenders, was launched in September 2013 and has helped complete more than $8 million in loans. The site, which functions similarly to social networks like Match.com, asks lenders and business owners to create profiles and then suggests matches using an algorithm. Users can post on their newsfeeds and explore other profiles.
BankMyBiz has been growing organically over the past year at a steady pace, said Michael Adam, founder. The website now has close to 1,000 users, and the business has three full-time and one part-time employee. He hopes to increase employment to 10 to 13 employees in the 18 months following the close of the seed round.
The seed round funds will mainly be used to get additional customers on the site, Adam said.
“There’s a cost of customer acquisition, and I think we’ve been very efficient gaining new customers, kind of in bootstrap mode, but now it’s really time to turn it up and multiply the number of user we have on the site,” he said.
BankMyBiz hopes to find one investment group to fund the whole seed round, Adam said. The plan is to close the seed round in the next three months, and use the funds over the following 18 months.
“We’ve spoken with several institutional angel groups throughout the Midwest,” he said. “We’re hoping to find one group to come in for the entire piece, so that’s why we’re being very selective of the process.”
The company also recently became a member of the Wisconsin Bankers Association and has been forming partnerships with small business advocacy groups to mentor business owners. Many of its loans have an SBA aspect, Adam said.
