A Non-Dilutive Alternative
to
Extend Your Runway
- Scale beyond the bootstrapping phase.
- Fund growth without sacrificing equity.
- Improve customer experience.
“There’s a tremendous amount of benefit from having the correct capital structure in a business as you’re starting up. It allows you to scale the company in a responsible way and makes you ‘stickier’ long-term.”
Francis Gallic
COO, Helix Wireless
Extended their runway
Preserved their ownership stake
Improved platform and APIs
Non-dilutive, flexible, and transparent.
Quicker than traditional capital.
Novel “gets” Founders.
Why They Were Seeking Funding
Helix Wireless, a New Jersey-based company that develops telecommunications tech and software, was looking for a non-dilutive solution to their funding challenges.
They valued their human-centric business model, and they were afraid that if they gave up too much equity – and therefore control – they wouldn’t be able to run their company the way they wanted to.
Francis Gallic, the company’s COO, had seen many of his colleagues experience a similar fate over the years. In one extreme example, he even watched a close friend and Founder get voted out of his own company, after his ownership was diluted to a minority stake.
To prevent this, Helix had made the choice to bootstrap, but when the time eventually came to start scaling more aggressively, it required an external source of funding to achieve their goals.
Initially, Helix reached out to several different VCs, incubators, and PE firms, but they didn’t feel comfortable with their valuation.
Helix was faced with a grim dilemma: give up a large chunk of their equity and risk ceding control to someone who wasn’t on board with their business model; or continue to bootstrap what they could and sacrifice their ability to pursue some of their more breakthrough growth initiatives.
Neither of these options appealed to Helix, so they decided to explore alternative funding.
Why They Chose Novel
Right off the bat, Helix was reassured by the way Novel interfaced with its customers:
- The team at Novel was comprised of former Founders and entrepreneurs, which gave them an inherent understanding and increased level of empathy.
- The way Novel took the time to understand their customers’ long-term goals mirrored Helix’s people-first mentality.
- The non-dilutive funding Novel provided allowed Helix to extend their runway and fund sustainable growth, without having to seek out VC or other equity-based options.
- And because they didn’t have to go through the lengthy process of securing traditional capital, Helix had more time to curate relationships and focus on the human element of their business.
- Thanks to Novel’s funding, Helix could build out their platform, their APIs, and provide a better, more integrative experience for their customers, which had always been their priority from day one.
Novel believed in Helix’s story, and now, three years later, Helix continues to turn to Novel whenever they need quick, reliable, non-dilutive capital.
Helix Wireless – currently partnered with AT&T – seeks to connect enterprise customers and small businesses alike through the use of their patented SmartSIM technology.
Their product allows customers to access up to 700 networks globally with one SIM card, providing better connectivity and streamlined operations, without the need for multiple contracts.
Your Next Chapter Starts Here
Boost your capital IQ and start accelerating your growth today.
