Today's News

Vancouver, BC, February 2, 2023--(T-Net)--Vancouver Based B2B fintech startup Levr.ai announced today that it has secured $1 million of pre-seed funding co-led by Sprout.vc and MAVAN Capital Partners.

Levr.ai is a Vancouver based fintech software company transforming the way businesses access and manage loans, and hopes to build a better experience for both business owners and financial lenders. Businesses can connect their accounting and banking software to Levr.ai and its AI and ML customized loan options for each business' financial needs.

Levr.ai is for all types of small businesses seeking capital; from Brick and Mortar, Mom-and-Pop shops, to online retailers and software companies.

They have established partnerships with lending partners to offer a wide range of funding options including business term loans, receivables financing, merchant cash advances, and venture debt.

The company's founders Kaylan Pepin and Roman Hartmann each have more than a decade of experience in the financial and software industries. They founded Levr.ai recognizing a recurring need for annual financing faced by millions of businesses.

Co-founder and CEO, Pepin is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA, CMA) with experience working at two of Canada's largest banks, RBC Royal Bank and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), and most recently the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC).

After graduating with BScs in Physics, Material Science and Geophysics, Hartmann launched into a career heavily focused on data, AI and ML.

Kaylan Pepin, CEO, Levr.ai

"Over my career, I've seen many qualified businesses struggle to get financing. Even worse than the complex loan application process is the lack of software tools available to manage active business loans. We're building Levr.ai to solve these issues." said Kaylan Pepin, CEO.

Roman Hartmann, co-founder and CTO, Levr.ai

"We have the opportunity to provide businesses with unparalleled control and insight into their own capital with our software." stated Roman Hartmann, co-founder and CTO.

Other members of the leadership team include Jennifer Daly, Shane Stoneman and Tara Benson.

Daly will be leading marketing and has 10+ years of SaaS growth experience as an early employee at WaveApps (acquired by H&R Block in 2019), Shopify, RBCx (formerly known as RBC Ventures) and Malwarebytes. Stoneman and Benson both come from Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC).

Stoneman has 7+ years experience, recently as a Senior Account Executive funding millions of dollars of capital to businesses since 2015. Benson has ten years experience, recently at BDC starting with its Tech Scaleup Group and Major Accounts in Tech. Previously she was with CIBC for 6+ years climbing the ranks in its Commercial Banking division.

Levr's pre-seed round was co-led by Sprout.vc and MAVAN Capital Partners. Sprout.vc is a seed-stage venture capital firm focused on innovative SaaS and B2B companies. MAVAN Capital Partners is a VCC that makes strategic investments in high-growth technology companies.

Levr.ai's additional venture and angel investors include Weave VC, AC100 VC and Red Thread Ventures, Teal Linde, Emily Davies and Paul Podolny. Included in this pre-seed raise, was support of non-dilutive capital from NRC Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP) Canada and BDC.

"When we learned how driven Levr.ai is to get businesses better and easier access to funding, this investment really resonated with our team. The demand is there, and the problem needs to be solved." MAVAN Capital Partners believe Levr.ai is well positioned to capture and drive value to this underserved market". stated Managing Partner, Laine Nevison, MAVAN Capital Partners.

"We're very impressed with Levr.ai's strong founders and solid management team, domain expertise as well as the extensive opportunities available in this market." said Mark Benning, General Partner, Sprout.vc.

Levr.ai says it will use the pre-seed investment for geographic footprint growth and acquisition through digital client acquisition and partnerships. The funds raised will be invested in growing the existing team and expanding its reach to service United States based businesses.

To learn more about Levr.ai, visit www.levr.ai.

About Levr.ai

Levr.ai is an intelligent loans platform built to get businesses funded

Levr.ai is a venture-backed early-stage B2B fintech startup on a mission to transform the way businesses access capital and manage loans. As early-movers in a space with an enormous addressable market, we're building a team of creative, smart, and experienced people to solve problems for businesses and lenders across the globe.

In Canada alone, 34% of all businesses reportedly seek financing each year. (Stats CAN, 2022[1] )

[1] https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/220302/dq220302b-eng.htm