Failed fintech startup Bench secured more than $65 million in debt, documents reveal

Bench, counting begins was placed on leavefiled for bankruptcy in Canada on January 7 to reveal huge debts, documents seen by TechCrunch show.

Notes – one for the Bench and another for 10 SheetsBench’s original name – indicates that Bench had $2.8 million in cash at the end of his life but $65.4 million in debt. (TechCrunch converted savings data from Canada to US dollars at a rate of $1 USD to $1.44 CAD.) Founded in 2012, Bench has raised $113 million from investors such as Shopify and Bain Capital Ventures.

Most of Bench’s debt – $50 million – is owed to the National Bank of Canada, one of Canada’s largest banks. More than 85% of these loans are unsecured, meaning that the bank has little collateral to repay the loan since the Bench failed. That debt may have contributed to the sudden closure of Bench: Tech Edition The new one said that NBC refused to return it to the Bench when it was sold. NBC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Bankruptcy documents also reveal the financial responsibility of the Bench’s VC investors, the split between convertible notes (which must be converted into equity) and stockholders’ equity. Bench owes $1.3 million to Bain Capital Ventures, whose partner Sarah Hinkfuss was appointed to the Bench’s board in 2023, according to a press release. The bench has another $1.2 million loan from Canadian VC Inovia Capital, owned by Adam Schlesinger. was chosen as the last CEO of Bench, the filter shows. Contour Venture Partners, a New York-based VC which led Bench’s $60 million Series C round, he has about $750,000 in debt. California-based Altos Ventures, another investor, has $777,000 in debt. All of this VC-related debt is unsecured, the filing says.

Bench’s other debts include $1.8 million in payments to former employees, the documents say. TechCrunch also reported this The bench staff was suddenly released on December 27 without notice or divorce being given. (Bench’s new owner, Employer.com, says it has also hired more employees(but he told TechCrunch that he’s temporarily on 30-day contracts while Bench works out his issues.)

Bench owes thousands of dollars in back pay to former executives: CEO Jean-Philippe Durrios, CRO Todd Daum, and CFO Mor Lakritz are all listed in the files. Licorice on LinkedIn It shows that Bench had an annual income of about $50 million.

Finally, bankruptcy records show that Bench owes $4 million in unpaid mortgages to Canadian Real Estate Morguard, possibly through his office. At its peak, Bench employed more than 600 people. Beyond the costs of staff, office space and approximately $1.5 million (by our back-of-the-envelope calculations) due to the spread of the proposed loan, such as SaaS business software providers, the records do not show how much money some were. to destroy.

While the Bench is working its way through bankruptcy, it is also in process found and San Francisco-based HR tech company Employer.com. Even its customers also told TechCrunch that Employer.com wants them to update their data to the Employer, or may lose.

Gary Levin, head of corporate development at Employer.com, told TechCrunch that a Canadian court is overseeing the Bench’s bankruptcy action and will oversee the distribution of money to creditors. He stressed that Employer.com has a strong paper that allows it to place in the Bench more going forward.