Stacey Abrams & Lara Hodgson FinTech Startup Raises $9.5M To Fix B2B Payment Woes

NowAccount knew they had a solution to help small businesses better manage invoices and payments. 

Coming out of the pandemic, the team, including Georgia Tech alumna Lara Hodgson and Spelman alumna  — and former State Representative — Stacey Abrams, closed a $9.5 million Series A round to scale.

Abrams talked about the origin story for Now during her run for Georgia Governor. Her previous startup with Hodgson, Nourish, struggled with credit and capital access in the aftermath of the Great Recession. 

Now was born out of the crises we experienced during the 2010 recession,” Hodgson told Hypepoamus. “Because customers took longer to pay when the pandemic hit, we have seen an increase in demand for NowAccount because it enables business owners to get paid faster without the risk of loans or factoring. The pandemic exacerbated weaknesses in every system. Small businesses were already waiting nearly 50 days to receive payment on Net 30 invoices, and during the pandemic, they had to wait over 70 days and still pay their vendors and make payroll. Our customer base has always been fast-growing businesses that sell to other businesses and governments. During the pandemic, some of our clients saw their business slow and were able to navigate the slowdown because they were not waiting for payments to arrive.  Other clients saw an immediate increase in business and used NowAccount to capture the growth opportunities.  What did not change is the grit and resilience of our clients and the commitment of our team to serve them.” 

Now’s platform not only accelerates cash flow and revenue opportunities for small businesses, it has a network “linking small business to larger customer contracts and orders,” according to the startup’s website.

Hodgson added that the new capital raise was important to meet customer demands and shifting business trends coming out of the pandemic. “Small businesses have disproportionately carried the burden of the economic challenges brought on by the COVID pandemic. As we emerge from the COVID pandemic, large corporations have committed to procuring more goods and services from small and diverse businesses, but the increased sales will cause a small business to grow out of business if they don’t get paid quickly.  Scaling NowAccount at this time will enable more businesses to grow without growing out of business,” she added. 

Investors in the round included California-based Virgo Investment and Charlotte-based private equity firm Crescent Capital Partners. 

The team has plans to scale up its headcount from 25.

While Abrams has made headlines over the last few years for her work on voting rights, she has been a strong presence in the Atlanta startup scene. On top of co-founding Nourish and Now, she serves as COO of an immersive activity app for children.

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