How Pollen VC built a data-driven financial solution for digital businesses.

1. BUILDING A DIGITAL LENDING BUSINESS
RITESH THADANI
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2. BUILDING A DIGITAL LENDING BUSINESS
Building a Digital Lending Business
ABOUT POLLEN VC
• Global App Marketplace is a $25Bn market growing to
$142Bn within three years*
• We help app developers unlock their app store earnings
early to fuel growth and deploy venture capital
more efficiently
• New data-driven approach to lending - our tech platform
connects directly to central billing system for digital products
to price risk in real time
*Source:Vision Mobile Developer Economics Survey Feb 2014
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3. BUILDING A DIGITAL LENDING BUSINESS
PROBLEM: PLATFORMS ONLY
PAY OUT REVENUE UP TO
60+ DAYS AFTER YOU’VE
EARNED IT.
LAUNCH
You’re earning money from
day 1
This is your money
trapped in the payment system
Platforms
release your
cash…
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4. BUILDING A DIGITAL LENDING BUSINESS
Reinvest directly
into advertising
Acquire more users
more quickly
Draw down earnings
on a daily basis
A NEW WAY…
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5. BUILDING A DIGITAL LENDING BUSINESS
TYPICAL LAUNCH SCENARIO
LAUNCH
Fail to get
credit with
ad networks
Can’t
reinvest to
acquire more
users
Get paid by
platforms
DOWNLOADS REVENUE
Revenue/Downloads
Jan 2015 Feb 2015 Mar 2015 Apr 2015 May 2015 Jun 2015 Jul 2015
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6. BUILDING A DIGITAL LENDING BUSINESS
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7. BUILDING A DIGITAL LENDING BUSINESS
FUNDING FOR FINTECH
Building a Digital Lending Business
Amount $
Capital Markets
Banks
Family Offices
Equity Capital
Data/Model Validation
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8. BUILDING A DIGITAL LENDING BUSINESS
DIGITAL
Creation and shipping of physical
goods
Invoices created at end of month
and posted/emailed. Paid
30,45,60 day terms
Advertising booked weeks in
advance - eg TV campaigns, direct
mailings
Factoring/Discounting solutions
available to shorten cycles at a
cost
App Store Marketplace - Real time
economics
Consumers purchase digital product
real-time - billed to credit cards
instantly
Advertising purchased in real time
through RTB exchanges
Lack of financial products eg invoice
financing
30 days is a long time. 60 days is an
eternity!
VS
OLD WORLD COMPARISON
PHYSICAL
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9. BUILDING A DIGITAL LENDING BUSINESS
STRUCTURE
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10. BUILDING A DIGITAL LENDING BUSINESS
GROWTH IN THE LONG TAIL
Building a Digital Lending Business
•c. 70,000 developers making more than $10k/year
across iOS and Google Play
•L-Shaped revenue curve is flattening out
•More opportunities for developers in the long tail
•User acquisition becoming better understood
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11. THANK YOU
ritesh@pollen.vc
@thadani
Follow us at @PollenVC