More proof that there is plenty of interest from investors in the accounts receivable management industry came yesterday, in the form of a $12 million Series A funding announcement from Prodigal, a technology company that provides an automation platform for debt buyers, debt collectors, and creditors rights law firms.
The announcement of the investment comes on the heels that InDebted, a technology-focused global collection operation, raised an additional $25 million to help fund its expansion.
Prodigal said it will use the $12 million investment to fund the expansion of its suite of products and to hire additional staff to support the continued growth of the company.
The $12 million investment round was led by Menlo Ventures, with participation from a number of existing Prodigal investors, including Accel, Y Combinator, MGV, Eric Sage — the Chief Operating Officer of Plaid, Anand Joshi, and Nicholas Hinrichsen. Y Combinator was part of a seed investment round in Prodigal, investing $120,000 in exchange for about 6% of the company.
Prodigal, which has grown eightfold in the past year, seeks to help companies allow their employees to be more efficient by automating many of the tasks — like filling out paperwork — that is traditionally done manually. Its automation platform includes ProNotes, which helps collectors reduce wrap-up time by creating notes as agents are on the phone. Once the call is completed, the agent only has to review the notes and approve them, rather then spend time typing. Along with ProNotes,
“Over the past 10 years, the vast majority of innovation in lending has focused on customer acquisition and underwriting, but the actual post-funding interactions with customers remain entirely manual, leading to mediocre customer experiences,” said Croom Beatty of Menlo Ventures, in a published report. “We’re excited to see Prodigal automate some of these busted workflows.”
