Valerian: Access to capital for small businesses made as easy as one-click shopping

Innovation Fund Winner

Why this program?

  • Access to capital is the number one challenge for small businesses, as current funding options in the market do not specifically meet their needs. 
  • Surveys show that 68% of small businesses with existing loans or lines of credit report that they wouldn't be able to sustain their current operations or expand without this financial support
  • While personal banking provides quick and easy access to credit through data-driven, user-friendly online apps, B2B financing lacks similarly accessible solutions for small business growth.
  • Small businesses generate valuable data daily but often lack the skills and know-how to extract insights that inform decision-making and support their credit needs.

Program overview

This program will support small businesses across the EU by unlocking their access to credit and working capital through the Valerian web application. Valerian will ensure financing is:

  • Systematic and unbiased
  • Affordable, with optimized capital costs based on data-driven assessments
  • Flexible and easily accessible through a simple online application

To unlock credit, small businesses only need to connect their data sources to the Valerian web app, these include accounting, banking, sales, e-commerce engine data (if applicable), website analytics, and digital distribution metrics. Each data source can easily be connected with a single click of a button, and the entire connecting process can be completed in less than 10 minutes. An offer for a cash advance is made within 24 hours, with funding available immediately after approval. Repayments are fully automated and collected via direct debit, allowing business owners to focus on their daily operations.

The collaboration with Mastercard Strive in the EU will allow Valerian to improve its overall customer experience by addressing potential friction points in the data connection process. Valerian will offer small business owners an affordable solution that uses a friendly chatbot interface to provide easy access to data analysis and personalized insights. This inclusive approach democratizes data science, enabling unbiased, merit-based access to capital.

With a flexible revenue-sharing repayment model, small businesses get to pay more when they grow and less when they don’t. Leveraging AI, Valerian analyzes data from thousands of similar businesses across Europe to offer actionable, bespoke suggestions that help guide the small business decision-making.

About Valerian

Valerian offers a highly automated end-to-end online experience to access capital. Small business owners in Europe connect their data sources to Valerian’s system, a process that is completed in a matter of minutes. This data is analyzed by Valerian’s algorithms, and a funding plan is presented within 24 hours. Small business owners can then receive funding in a highly automated fashion: Money flows are handled by Valerian’s systems with collections made autonomously by Valerian on a daily basis through a revenue-share mechanism.

“Mastercard Strive’s support will allow Valerian to improve its user experience and roll out a natural language chatbot interface for data analysis. This process puts control of financing back in the hands of small business owners. We are very much looking forward to working with the entire Mastercard Strive ecosystem.”

Eric Bidinger

Founder and CEO of Valerian

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