Clearco continues European expansion with launch in Germany

Following its launch in Ireland this March, Softbank-backed lender Clearco has arrived in Germany with an ambitious pledge to lend €500m to support local businesses.

As well as launching, Clearco has appointed ex-Axel Springer exec Mariam Koorang as its country manager for the new market.

Clearco’s co-Founder and CEO Michele Romanow described herself as “bullish on the largest economy in the Eurozone.”

“Germany has one of Europe’s fastest-growing economies and a dynamic start-up sector. We are confident that we will have a meaningful impact on the German eCommerce economy and allow founders to grow and scale quickly without giving up their hard-earned equity.”

Germany joins Ireland, the UK, the Netherlands, Australia Canada and the UK as markets Clearco currently serves, but the company says more new markets are still to come in 2022, including further expansion into Western Europe, Central Europe and the Nordic region.

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.