I joined BFS Capital two and a half years ago because I saw an opportunity for significant innovation in small business financial services.
After seven years working in online consumer finance, managing businesses across North America, Europe, South Africa, and South America, I had first-hand experience bringing industry-leading fintech solutions to market. When I looked at what was happening worldwide in consumer finance, compared to the types of legacy, laggard experiences small business owners were still wrestling with, it was clear that there was a significant innovation gap. On top of this, a new generation of small business owners was emerging, demanding the anytime, anywhere, on their terms, mobile first experiences they were now accustomed to in the rest of their digital lives. It was clear we were reaching an inevitable point of inflection in small business financial services.
The investors behind BFS agreed, and together we committed to transforming a company that had deep roots in small business lending, and a deep understanding small businesses in its DNA, into one that was equipped to lead innovation in small business financial services. Our approach was to start by leveraging our two decades of data and experience, from tens of thousands of customers across 400 industries. Based on these unique insights, we would build a fintech startup that would provide small businesses with innovative financial solutions that not only met their emerging digital expectations, but helped them drive great business outcomes.
We quickly assembled a leadership team whose experience spanned global financial services, innovative challenger banks, mobile app design, creative and brand development, customer experience innovation, and digital transformation. But most importantly, we sought a team capable of rapidly developing and executing an ambitious strategy to emerge as a leader in small business financial services.
We spent time with the next generation of small business owners understanding their pain points, their motivations, and their passions. We sought inspiration, worldwide, from the best mobile and digital experiences we could find. We crafted a vision for a company that provided not only innovative financial solutions, but employed a more holistic approach, delivering content, tools, and financial products, purpose-built to serve small business owners’ daily critical needs.
Our next job was transforming a two-decade old “mechanical turk” of business into a lean, digital, mobile first fintech – all in the middle of a pandemic. We made the tough decision to significantly reduce our legacy team, and immediately set about acquiring the skillsets we would need to realize our vision.
We established a digital headquarters in Toronto, and focused on hiring world-class talent in data, machine learning, technology, and digital marketing. We transformed internal workflows completely, in order to support a remote and distributed workforce across the US, UK, Canada, and South America. Most importantly, we shifted our philosophy from solely selling loans acquired primarily from brokers, to providing a more holistic, customer-centric mobile app that entrepreneurs would find useful each and every day. This app-centric model would not only radically improve our customer acquisition, engagement, retention, and monetization efforts (thereby reducing acquisition costs and increasing customer lifetime value) but it would be the foundation for us to deliver a significant increase in enterprise value.
The reimagined future of BFS starts now, and today I’m proud to announce that BFS Capital has become Nuula. This brand change represents the manifestation of the shared vision and effort from our entire global team across the past 18 months.
Nuula is a mobile application that gives small business owners instant access to critical business metrics anytime, anywhere. It allows real-time monitoring of cash flow, personal and business credit activity, and social ratings and reviews. Small business owners know immediately if there’s an issue with their cash, credit, or reputation that requires action.
But this is just the beginning. Our goal is to empower small business owners by unlocking access to the smartest and most innovative financial solutions available. Some delivered by our team, others delivered by a carefully curated set of partners. All delivered to the palms of their hands, anytime, anywhere, within a seamless user experience.
So stay tuned. In the coming weeks and months, we will launch a suite of next generation financial products, including a revolutionary line of credit that will enable small businesses to access the capital they need to thrive.
With regards to our legacy business, our team will continue to support our existing customers and partners as we transition all our services to Nuula. Our existing customers will be the first to be offered a chance to experience Nuula. And over the next few weeks, our existing working capital customers will be able to unlock additional capital from the first of our Nuula ecosystem partners, with exciting incentives and in a way that is as seamless as possible. We expect to make that announcement soon.
I want to thank all of the team, our board, and investors, in addition to our partners and customers who have gone on this journey so far. And we look forward to breaking new ground together with Nuula. For small businesses, we believe this changes everything.
Mark Ruddock
CEO, Nuula