Clearco pledges €100m investment as it launches in Ireland

The Softbank-backed lender plans to grow its Irish team to over 200.

Ecommerce lender Clearco (formerly Clearbanc) is launching in Ireland today with plans to lend over €100m to support Irish businesses.

The Softbank-backed firm has leant more than $3.2bn to over 7,000 businesses across the US, UK, Canada, Australia and the Netherlands.

In Ireland Clearco already has a sales and business development team of 75 in Dublin, which it plans to grow to 125 in the near future as part of today’s launch.

As well as adding Ireland to the markets it lends in, Clearco said more new markets are yet to come in 2022, including expansion into Western Europe, Central Europe and the Nordic region.

“Clearco is excited to bring our revenue-based funding model to Irish founders,” said CEO and co-founder Michele Romanow.

“Ireland has one of Europe’s strongest economies and a dynamic start-up sector. We are confident that we will have a meaningful impact on the Irish eCommerce economy.”

Last July Clearco raised a staggering $215m funding round, led by Softbank and coming just months after the lender raised $100m in equity and $250m in debt in April 2021.

At the same time Clearco rebranded from Clearbanc, a move it said was made to help it diversify into a wider range of growth products and services.

Clearco’s decision to both launch and expand its operations in Ireland was welcomed by national politicians.

Ireland’s Tánaiste (deputy prime minister) Leo Varadkar said: “We pride ourselves on the environment we have created to help ambitious multinationals like Clearco thrive and I’m sure the team will feel at home here.”