GREENWICH — Enterprise capital agency Oak HC/FT has introduced it led a $200 million funding spherical for ZenBusiness, an Austin, Texas-based firm that helps entrepreneurs.
Greenwich-based Oak led the Sequence C funding, with assist from SoftBank Imaginative and prescient Fund 2 and current buyers Cathay Innovation and Greycroft. With that funding, ZenBusiness has achieved a $1.7 billion valuation — becoming a member of the choose group of “unicorn” privately held startup corporations which are price greater than $1 billion.
“ZenBusiness’s fintech choices change the sport for a way entrepreneurs handle and monitor their funds,” Oak companion Matt Streisfeld stated in a press release. “By democratizing monetary administration, ZenBusiness is simplifying service provider companies and placing monetary energy again within the fingers of enterprise house owners. We’re thrilled to companion with ZenBusiness at a time when entrepreneurs are actually greater than ever in want of digital instruments to assist them develop and develop into profitable.”
The brand new funds will assist product improvement at Zen whose companies embody digital instruments, fintech options, academic assets and buyer assist. Its platform has grown greater than 400 p.c since March 2020 and now helps greater than 200,000 entrepreneurs within the U.S., based on firm information. It additionally works with gig staff, on-line sellers, actual property buyers, artists and freelancers.
“ZenBusiness has revolutionized the method of launching and operating a profitable enterprise,” ZenBusiness founder and CEO Ross Buhrdorf stated in a press release. “Like Shopify did for e-commerce, ZenBusiness is creating the category-defining resolution for the service sector, offering an easy-to-use platform with embedded fintech options so entrepreneurs can flip their concepts into money-making realities. We deal with the ‘enterprise stuff’ so our prospects can give attention to their ardour and construct the life they need, stress-free and with out sacrificing their well-being.”
Based in 2014, Oak manages roughly $3.3 billion in belongings. The HC/FT is an abbreviation that refers to its give attention to early to “growth-stage” corporations in well being care and monetary expertise. It has maintained that technique with the launch of its Fund IV earlier this yr.
“As we take into consideration what we wish to accomplish with the brand new fund and the areas we put money into, well being care and fintech are about 50 p.c of the economic system,” Oak co-founder and managing companion Annie Lamont stated in an interview earlier this yr.
Oak’s different investments this yr have included main roles in $54 million in funding for financial-technology agency Highnote, $98 million in funding for e-commerce supplier cart.com and a $100 million spherical for Medicare company Advise Well being Holdings.
Amongst earlier investments, Oak participated in roughly $120 million in fundraising rounds final yr and in 2019 for the Stamford-based well being care data agency Sema4.
In July, Sema4 accomplished its transformation right into a publicly traded firm and achieved an roughly $3 billion valuation. Sema4 is the one Connecticut-headquartered firm wherein Oak has an energetic funding.
The Oak investor base consists of strategic buyers, fund-of-funds, company and public pension plans, endowments and household places of work.
Oak is headquartered within the Pickwick Plaza workplace advanced in downtown Greenwich and in addition has places of work in Boston and San Francisco. There are roughly 30 folks on the Oak crew, with about 20 based mostly in Greenwich.
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