How it works
Cohorts Capital funds up to 80% of a company's monthly Sales & Marketing. In return we take a capped share of the gross margin from the customers it acquires, proportional to what we funded. Once the cap is reached, all remaining lifetime value stays with the company. It is not equity and not fixed-term debt. Repayment tracks the performance of the cohort we financed.
The monthly cycle
1
We fund the spend.
Each month you set your Sales & Marketing budget. We fund an agreed share of it, up to 80%.
2
You stay in control.
The budget, the channels, and the execution are yours. We enable growth, we do not direct it.
3
We're repaid from results.
As the customers acquired that month pay, we collect a share of their gross margin, until we're repaid plus a capped return. If the cohort underperforms, we absorb the loss. You never owe more than the cohort generates.
4
It revolves monthly.
Collections are netted against the next month's funding, so cash moves once and capital keeps working. Each month's funding is a fresh decision, for both sides.
An illustrative scenario
Take a single month's cohort.
Traditional marketing cash flow
↳ Company invests 300K and returns 420K net cash over 12 months
Marketing
Marketing cash flow with Cohorts Capital
↳ Company invests 300K and returns 822K net cash over 12 months
Marketing
Illustrative funding economics
Status quo
With Cohorts Capital
Illustrative numbers. Terms are structured per deal on your own cohort data.
Not equity. Not traditional debt.
Three structures fund growth without dilution. Only one of them shares the cohort's downside.
Cohort-based funding (us).
Funds your Sales & Marketing each month and is repaid from the gross margin of the customers it acquires, capped, with the rest left to you. If a cohort underperforms, the fund absorbs it.
Revenue-based finance.
Advances the full amount upfront against revenue you already have, at a fixed fee. You repay in full on schedule, whatever the funded customers do.
Venture and growth debt.
Term loans with fixed repayment, usually with warrants. You carry the full downside.
For a company matching our criteria, cohort-based funding is the most favourable of the three. Downside protection if a cohort underperforms, and deployment month by month rather than the full amount from the start.
We take no collateral and no covenants, and our only claim is on the margin of the cohorts we fund. We do not compete with your existing investors. We extend your runway, and ownership stays exactly where it is.
How we underwrite
Every deal runs through the same disciplined process, powered by a platform built specifically for cohort-based capital.
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1
Screen.
Business model, revenue type, and marketing-led acquisition against our filters.
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2
Data.
We request cohort-level revenue, gross margin, and Sales & Marketing history.
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3
Analyse.
The platform models payback, retention, elasticity, and forecasts.
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4
Decide.
A structured memo, then a clear go or no-go.
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5
Monitor.
Funded cohorts are tracked monthly against agreed thresholds.
Our underwriting runs on a proprietary platform. It ingests your data, produces an auditable workbook, and models payback curves, retention decay, Sales & Marketing elasticity, and multi-horizon forecasts.
What we ask for
To assess a company we need a cohort-level view of revenue, gross margin, and Sales & Marketing history, typically at least 12 months. Customer-level personal data is not required.
Terms
Terms are structured per deal on your own economics. The participation rate, the cap multiple, and the performance thresholds are calibrated to your cohort history during diligence. The shape of the deal never changes. You get a capped return with no fixed repayments and no equity, and the downside stays with us.
If a cohort tracks below the thresholds we agree, our share of that cohort's margin steps up until we are repaid. Even then, you never owe more than the cohort generates.
If the criteria fit, tell us about your company.
Apply for funding