I previously wrote on BFS Capital's conversion to Nuula, so I was astonished to say the least when I saw their CEO Mark Ruddock's article on LinkedIn announcing that Nuula is selling all of its assets. The main reason given for them having to do so is their Series A funding round fell through. They announced a $120 million capital raise last year to build their ‘Superapp’ for small businesses.
This was a very unfortunate thing for all involved and I feel for all their employees. It is never easy to lose a job but certainly a shock when a whole company shuts down at a moment's notice. I worked for BFS Capital back in 2016 in Florida so this is a company that I had a good understanding of and developed many working relationships with at the time. They had success for almost 2 decades as BFS Capital, even at one point was rumored to be seeking to go public, and the future looked bright as Nuula came to form.
The news was even more surprising to me because as I wrote last year, I believed that the package of services and embedded finance application Nuula was planning on offering in their Superapp was going to be used as a template for other funders going forward. That model is not what went wrong here with Nuula so I still think that certain services, embedded finance, and other verticals are an opportunity for growth for funders. However, it's possible that funders won't package too many services until they are receiving sufficient returns and have secured the funding necessary.
This situation is another example of how unforeseen circumstances in any economic condition can drastically affect a growing business. Best of luck to all affected.
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