SoftBank-Backed Clear Finance Building Dublin Hub, Eyes Germany

(Bloomberg) -- A Canadian startup that recently received funding from SoftBank Group Corp. is opening an international hub in Ireland, part of an acceleration of its European expansion.

Toronto-based Clear Finance, which operates under the name Clearco, is opening a sales hub in Dublin to assist growth across Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. It also plans to expand to Germany in the next six months, according to Clearco Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer Michele Romanow. 

The company offers funding to technology entrepreneurs in return for a fixed sum from future revenue. It plans to add 125 staff to an existing 75 in Dublin and invest 100 million euros ($111 million) in Irish digital businesses.

“Ireland is having a moment,” Romanow said in an interview in Dublin, citing the country’s economic growth, English-speaking local talent, and government support for new companies among attractions. “There’s a lot of really great brands being built out of here.” 

Clearco also plans to expand into other European markets in 2022, including operations in Central Europe and the Nordics.

“Germany will be our next big market,” Romanow said. The investment will likely be larger than in Ireland due to the relative market size, she added. “There’s a huge amount of bigger e-commerce companies that have been established there.”

Further reading: SoftBank Leads $215 Million Round in Canada Finance Startup (1)

Clearco says it has advanced more than $3.2 billion globally to over 7,000 companies to date. It currently operates in the U.S., Canada, Australia, the U.K., Ireland and the Netherlands.

The company aims to remove biases in its funding decisions by using algorithms that are agnostic to gender, race and location. Half of the businesses in its current portfolio are led by women, putting Clearco far ahead of the venture capital industry, which gave just 2% of funding to female founders last year in the U.S.

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.