Singapore-based debt fund Mars Growth Capital pours $4m into US-based Hiver

Singapore-based debt fund Mars Growth Capital said it has committed a US$4 million debt facility to Hiver, a US-headquartered customer support assistance firm.

Mars Growth Capital CEO Ron Daniel / Photo credit: Mars Growth Capital

Founded in 2011, Hiver supports companies by assigning, tracking, and collaborating on customer emails, and runs analytics and automations from their Gmail interface to help in customer service. Besides its head office in San Jose, California, it also runs operations from its India office in Bengaluru.

The startup has provided its services to companies including Canva, Harvard University, and Upwork, among others.

Funds raised from the financing round will be used for Hiver’s account-based marketing strategy. The firm aims to double its revenue in 2021 and 2022.

Meanwhile, Mars Growth Capital is looking to provide debt facilities to startups in the Asia-Pacific region, especially for the ecommerce and software-as-a-service (SaaS) verticals. It invests in tech companies with an average annual growth rate of 30% and an average monthly revenue of US$300,000.

Mars Growth Capital has “a unique AI platform that supports growth debt for APAC ecommerce and SaaS startups,” said investment director Ryutaro Edward Hiroshima. “Hiver is a growing company that perfectly fits our AI model,” he adds.

Launched in August 2020, Mars Growth Capital is a joint venture between Mitsubishi UFJ Financial’s core banking unit, MUFG Bank, and Liquidity Capital M.C.

MUFG Bank has made US$80 million capital commitment to the debt fund. The average deal size of the fund ranges between US$2 million and US$30 million.

Liquidity Capital has previously backed US-based ecommerce firm Resident, Israel-based data storage firm Infinidat, and Canadian SaaS firm Allseated, among others.