Financing
April 29, 2024

Clearco is an alternative working capital provider to Ampla for CPG ecommerce

Author
Andrew Curtis

Ecommerce businesses have numerous options when considering a capital provider to support their growth. There is no one-size-fits-all financing option, and we often find that Clearco customers are working with multiple providers to fund different elements of their business. Companies leverage Clearco to fund their vendor invoices for inventory, while using other financing options to purchase equipment or pay their team.

It’s known that Ampla is facing significant challenges in its own business, which is in turn affecting its customers. For several months, we’ve been hearing from Ampla customers, and we’ve been excited to support and provide new capital to them, refinancing their Ampla facility in the process. 

What is Ampla?

Ampla is a technology-enabled financial platform which offers consumer brands digital banking and working capital solutions. Ampla’s core capital product is a secured, revolving line of credit secured by an all-asset lien (with a limited guarantee from the business’ owners). The Ampla product has certain features typical of a traditional asset-based loan facility, including maintenance of cash dominion via a controlled account agreement and lockbox. Another hallmark of Ampla’s approach is that they often required customers to borrow only from them, discouraging them from using other financing sources. Based on recent conversations with their customers, we understand Ampla has stopped funding facilities with its customers, shrunk customers’ lines of credit, and/or requested that customers fully repay their loans.

Clearco is an alternative to Ampla financing

Many ecommerce businesses we speak with about funding are looking for heterogeneous financial solutions – not just alternatives to Ampla but to other providers as well. Ampla, as a one-stop financing provider, discouraged their ecommerce customers from leveraging additional financing options. A big differentiator for Clearco’s Invoice Funding is that we’re happy to work with ecommerce businesses who have other financing sources – from Small Business Administration (SBA) Loans to revenue-based fintechs like us to your traditional bank.

Clearco works with ecommerce companies to fund inventory, marketing receipts, and shipping and logistics bills. We are not traditional “cash-in-bank” Merchant Cash Advance or Revenue-Based Financing. Instead, we are a platform designed to help you invest in those elements of your ecommerce business that will see the return in a few months time. Many ecommerce businesses need a bridge to support their cashflow between ordering from suppliers and selling their products. That’s where Clearco comes in.

What is Clearco’s Invoice Funding?

Our invoice funding is highly specific to our customers’ needs. Clearco is an alternative to ecommerce loans. With Clearco’s Invoice Funding, your ecommerce business takes the funding amount it needs, when it needs it, and is debited with weekly capped payments.

Clearco funding gets your business back on track

We understand that changes to financial services that your business relies on can be tricky to navigate. While we're sorry to see the challenges Ampla is facing and the downstream impacts it is having on its customers, we believe Ampla’s current situation is part of a continuing shake-out in fintech markets. Many fintech capital providers – including Clearco – have hit rough patches in the last several years. What motivates us and what enabled us to succeed through such stretches was a passionate, unwavering commitment to supporting rapidly growing ecomms that need our capital. That has always been, and it remains, our North Star. We will do whatever we can to support these customers, including providing new or replacement financing when other financing sources run dry.

Sign up for Clearco funding today for your ecommerce business or get in touch with our support team to learn more about the funding solutions we offer.

Andrew Curtis
CEO, Clearco

Andrew Curtis is the CEO of Clearco. Andrew has over twenty years of experience working in finance in New York City, including roles at investment banks Merrill Lynch & Co. and Lazard Frères as well as several investment managers. Before joining Clearco as an advisor in July 2022, he served as an advisor to Annaly Capital Management, a real estate investment trust focused on housing finance and the residential mortgage market.

Andrew has an extensive background in leveraged credit, liability management and financial restructurings, asset-based finance and securitizations. He graduated from Brown University and subsequently earned master’s degrees from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and The Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy at Tufts University.

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