Doola nurses new capital for its ‘business in a box’ tool targeting global founders • TechCrunch

Doola, which helps global founders to start limited liability companies in the United States without a Social Security number raised $8 million.

The company has received the new investment less than a year since it secured seed funding of $3 million. The company now has just less than $12 million in total funding, since it was founded in 2020 by Arjun Mahadevan & JP Pincheira. Mahadevan did not disclose the company’s new valuation but did say this round increased it.

Our previous article on doola in 2020 was written by a New York-based firm. They had just launched their MVP and were working with their first paying customer. Many companies had created LLCs using the software. This software provides information such as an EIN (employee identification numbers), U.S. addresses and bank accounts, access to U.S. payment, free tax consultations, U.S. Tax Support and a phone number.

Mahadevan explained to TechCrunch that doola has enabled thousands of companies in over 130 countries to launch with it. This has allowed the company to grow its revenue seven times a year.

Doola is building what he said customers call “business in a box,” which has turned into a one-stop solution for compliantly forming a company, including more education on how to start a company, a new banking offering and a soon-to-come credit product. Much of that is to help the U.S. Census’ project of over 5 million new business applications made in 2021, Mahadevan said.

“If we can help people go from zero to point one and get their business off the ground, we think we can increase entrepreneurship globally and make it more likely that people with businesses can succeed and reach product-market fit and scale,” he added.

Nexus Venture Partners was again the lead investor in doola. Other investors included Hustle Fund (Y Combinator Continuity Fund), Hustle Fund, Chris Adelsbach and Alex Bloom. Jacqueline Reses, ex-head of Square Capital; Dharmesh Rah, founder and CTO, at HubSpot; Ankur Napal, founder at Teachable, and of Vibe Capital, Rohini Pandhi is product manager at Square, partner at Transparent Collective; Arjun Selthi, cofounder, investor at Tribe Capital; Prasanna Shankar, cofounder of Rippling, Translink and Psion Capital.

Mahadevan intends to use the new funding to grow doola’s team, particularly in the areas of product, engineering and R&D. It already has offices in New York and Germany, and plans to expand these and open new ones. It will also be focusing on marketing.

The company also launched its own banking services with Piedmont Bank over the past year. Customers can have a U.S.-based bank account and remotely bank anywhere using virtual credit, debit cards, international wires, and physical credit.

“The ultimate end goal is to accept payments,” Mahadevan said. “We’re also sitting on this treasure trove of data with visibility into companies and how they perform. We’re going to be able to think for customers and provide financial services that they never had before.”