
Investments
225Portfolio Exits
31Funds
6Partners & Customers
10About CircleUp
CircleUp is an equity crowdfunding firm. It harnesses the power of data to provide capital and resources to emerging consumer brands. It builds a robust repository of consumer packaged goods (CPG) and retail intelligence. It was founded in 2012 and is based in San Francisco, California.

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Expert Collections containing CircleUp
Expert Collections are analyst-curated lists that highlight the companies you need to know in the most important technology spaces.
Find CircleUp in 9 Expert Collections, including Vitamin & Supplement Startups.
Vitamin & Supplement Startups
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Fintech 250
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Food & Beverage
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Fitness Tech
227 items
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Digital Lending
1,885 items
This collection contains companies that provide alternative means for obtaining a loan for personal or business use and companies that provide software to lenders for the application, underwriting, funding or loan collection process.
SMB Fintech
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Research containing CircleUp
Get data-driven expert analysis from the CB Insights Intelligence Unit.
CB Insights Intelligence Analysts have mentioned CircleUp in 1 CB Insights research brief, most recently on Dec 9, 2021.
Latest CircleUp News
May 17, 2023
Jia, a blockchain-based fintech providing loans to micro and small businesses in emerging markets, has raised $4.3 million seed funding, and an additional $1 million commitment for on-chain liquidity, in a round led by early-stage backer TCG Crypto, with participation from a number of funds including BlockTower, Hashed Emergent, Saison Capital, and Global Coin Research. Angel investors Packy McCormick, Not Boring founder, Anand Iyer of Canonical Crypto, Jared Hecht and Rory Eakin, the founders of fintech lending companies Fundera and CircleUp, also took part in the round. The fintech plans to use the funding to double down on its operations in Kenya, and the Philippines, before exploring new markets in West Africa, Latin America, and Asia. Jia was founded last year by Zach Marks , Cheng Cheng , Ivan Orone , and Yuting Wang , all ex-Tala executives. The startup offers loans to borrowers, who receive tokens after repayment, that they can later redeem at a rate agreed upon based on Jia’s profits. “The idea is to provide affordable financing for micro-businesses, and when they repay, they become owners by getting token rewards,” said Marks, Jia CEO and co-founder, adding that each token has a claim to a stream of revenues from Jia’s lending protocol. The fintech currently packages the tokens as Jia points, which Marks says are claimable once the token-system is fully established. Meanwhile, borrowers can use them as security for lower interest rates, higher loan amounts, and more flexible loan terms. Jia is trying to replicate the model of community finance (table-banking) groups, which are popular in markets like Kenya, where members, who are borrowers too, hold shares and earn from the groups. The fintech has launched its first on-chain pool with Huma finance, an in-come backed decentralized finance protocol. Jia provides loans of up to $5,000 to small businesses filling the gap currently left by digital lenders and loan apps that don’t offer credit of more than $1,000. Marks says this “makes it really difficult to really serve a proper business use case because if you want to grow, you need more money and for longer durations.” Jia’s loan repayment period is based on the borrower, and can extend up to six months, and attract about 2% to 6% interest per month, depending on the borrower’s profile. Borrowers accessing inventory and invoice financing have up to three months to repay. “So, the loans range in size from about $200 up to $5,000 …they are really competitively priced. We charge about a third the interest rate of the typical consumer fintech lender,” said Zachs. Jia taps customers by integrating into the apps of its local partners, including Ilara Health, which supplies medical inventory to a network of over 2,000 small clinics. “Ilara’s focus is on helping clinics grow. They sell the medicine, low-cost diagnostic devices. They don’t want to deal with credit risk on their balance sheet, and so we step to finance an inventory financing program for them. We get access to a bunch of proprietary data that Ilara has about these clinics, which helps us underwrite in a way that banks and other lenders can’t,” said Marks. Jia is among the fintech companies working to bridge the access-to-finance gap which impedes the growth of businesses in markets like Africa. Data shows that while small enterprises make up 90% of Africa’s businesses, they face a $330 billion financing deficit. These businesses are required to have collateral, and meet a number of other time-consuming requirements before accessing loans from traditional lenders. Fintechs such as Jia are stepping in to bridge this finance gap. “What is really exciting in what we’re doing is opening up the world’s capital to MSMEs, so they can receive affordable financing,” said Marks. “Jia is not just providing financing, we are providing a path to economic resilience and this opportunity to build wealth in a new way that hasn’t been done before.”
CircleUp Investments
225 Investments
CircleUp has made 225 investments. Their latest investment was in Kosas Cosmetics as part of their Unattributed VC on April 4, 2022.

CircleUp Investments Activity

Date | Round | Company | Amount | New? | Co-Investors | Sources |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
4/26/2022 | Unattributed VC | Kosas Cosmetics | $12M | No | 1 | |
3/31/2022 | Series A | Koia | Yes | 2 | ||
2/7/2022 | Series A | Everything Legendary | $6M | Yes | 301 INC, CircleUp, and Mark Cuban | 8 |
1/13/2022 | Series A | |||||
5/6/2021 | Seed VC |
Date | 4/26/2022 | 3/31/2022 | 2/7/2022 | 1/13/2022 | 5/6/2021 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Round | Unattributed VC | Series A | Series A | Series A | Seed VC |
Company | Kosas Cosmetics | Koia | Everything Legendary | ||
Amount | $12M | $6M | |||
New? | No | Yes | Yes | ||
Co-Investors | 301 INC, CircleUp, and Mark Cuban | ||||
Sources | 1 | 2 | 8 |
CircleUp Portfolio Exits
31 Portfolio Exits
CircleUp has 31 portfolio exits. Their latest portfolio exit was Greensbury on April 20, 2023.
Date | Exit | Companies | Valuation Valuations are submitted by companies, mined from state filings or news, provided by VentureSource, or based on a comparables valuation model. | Acquirer | Sources |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
4/20/2023 | Acquired | 1 | |||
10/18/2022 | Acquired | 8 | |||
9/14/2022 | Acquired | 5 | |||
Date | 4/20/2023 | 10/18/2022 | 9/14/2022 | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Exit | Acquired | Acquired | Acquired | ||
Companies | |||||
Valuation | |||||
Acquirer | |||||
Sources | 1 | 8 | 5 |
CircleUp Fund History
6 Fund Histories
CircleUp has 6 funds, including CircleUp Growth Partners II.
Closing Date | Fund | Fund Type | Status | Amount | Sources |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
9/19/2019 | CircleUp Growth Partners II | $200M | 1 | ||
5/5/2016 | CircleUp Marketplace Index Fund I | ||||
7/13/2015 | Consumer Growth Fund | ||||
CircleUp Growth Partners | |||||
Brooklyn Food & Beverage Circle I |
Closing Date | 9/19/2019 | 5/5/2016 | 7/13/2015 | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Fund | CircleUp Growth Partners II | CircleUp Marketplace Index Fund I | Consumer Growth Fund | CircleUp Growth Partners | Brooklyn Food & Beverage Circle I |
Fund Type | |||||
Status | |||||
Amount | $200M | ||||
Sources | 1 |
CircleUp Partners & Customers
10 Partners and customers
CircleUp has 10 strategic partners and customers. CircleUp recently partnered with Brightflow AI on March 3, 2023.
Date | Type | Business Partner | Country | News Snippet | Sources |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
3/7/2023 | Vendor | United States | 08:07 ET Brightflow AI and CircleUp Announce Strategic Partnership Under the new partnership , CircleUp has transitioned the servicing of its loan portfolio to Brightflow AI , which provides brands with software , insights , and recommendations to manage their cash flow and position their business to access capital . | 2 | |
8/5/2021 | Partner | United States | |||
7/26/2018 | Partner | United States | A spokeswoman for General Mills declined to comment on its partnership with CircleUp . | 2 | |
2/13/2018 | Client | ||||
12/13/2017 | Partner |
Date | 3/7/2023 | 8/5/2021 | 7/26/2018 | 2/13/2018 | 12/13/2017 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Type | Vendor | Partner | Partner | Client | Partner |
Business Partner | |||||
Country | United States | United States | United States | ||
News Snippet | 08:07 ET Brightflow AI and CircleUp Announce Strategic Partnership Under the new partnership , CircleUp has transitioned the servicing of its loan portfolio to Brightflow AI , which provides brands with software , insights , and recommendations to manage their cash flow and position their business to access capital . | A spokeswoman for General Mills declined to comment on its partnership with CircleUp . | |||
Sources | 2 | 2 |
CircleUp Team
13 Team Members
CircleUp has 13 team members, including , .
Name | Work History | Title | Status |
---|---|---|---|
Ryan Caldbeck | Encore Consumer Capital, TSG Consumer Partners, Bain Capital, and The Boston Consulting Group | Founder | Current |
Name | Ryan Caldbeck | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Work History | Encore Consumer Capital, TSG Consumer Partners, Bain Capital, and The Boston Consulting Group | ||||
Title | Founder | ||||
Status | Current |
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