By Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport – The Australian Financial Review
3 July 2025
Sydney’s Kashcade, a three-year-old business that lends to start-ups, has secured Wingate as an investor for a new $50 million warehouse facility that will help it double its active loan book by Christmas.
Wingate is leading the senior tranche of Kashcade’s new warehouse facility, while another investor, Fancourt Specialised Finance, snapped up the mezzanine tranche. It comes after Street Talk in February reported Kashcade was hunting for new financing.
Wingate, one of Australia’s oldest private credit investors, was recently acquired by Singapore’s CapitaLand. Fancourt is its former principal investing unit that was spun out as part of the deal. Fancourt focuses on financial services players, including as an asset-backed financier.
The $50 million facility will allow Kashcade to lend to more than 250 new companies.
Kashcade pitches itself as a non-dilutive (no warrants, equity or restrictive covenants) solution for early-stage start-ups locked out of other funding sources, such as venture debt lenders. Its business helps start-ups to borrow funds against future R&D Tax Incentive refunds they expect to receive from the government, with approval times of as little as 24 hours.
Founder Alex Simmons is a former CBA lending strategist and teamed up with Patrick Nappa, an ex-Apple software engineer, to set up the business in 2023.
Its active loan book of $25 million includes 100 customers. It has deployed more than $50 million over the last 12 months.
“We were impressed by Kashcade’s ability to underwrite and fund R&D loans with both pace and discipline – qualities that are clearly reflected in its strong track record,” Wingate executive director Daniel Shap said.