Easol Capital: Event funding tailored to creators

Easol is the leading all-in-one platform for managing an entire experience business. In 2022, Easol wanted to help its creators grow their events businesses by offering them easy access to  financing options. The goal was to provide Easol creators with simple, fast, and transparent access to funding to help them manage short-term cash flow needs. 

Creators have expenses (booking fees, equipment deposits, marketing costs, insurance, etc.) to pay ahead of the on-sale, creating cash flow shortfalls. Creators with good traction often look to grow their experience business, but with growth comes the need for a capital investment. 

Easol Capital, powered by Lenkie

Easol Capital, powered by Lenkie, was launched by Easol to help Easol’s UK creators invest in the operations and growth of their experience and events businesses. Lenkie partnered with Easol to provide a smooth journey that makes it easy and quick for Easol creators to gain quick and direct access to funding. 

Through the seamless digital application process via a Lenkie Dashboard, creators on the Easol platform are able to apply in 2 minutes, receive an offer in 24 hours, and have funds in their business account the next day. 

The funding is powered by Lenkie, allowing Easol to maintain valuable relationships with their creators without it being clouded by logistical hurdles around underwriting decisions and repayments.  

What is Easol Capital?

Easol Capital provides  a cash advance – financing based on sales history and repaid based on a percentage of future sales. 

Most events businesses are overlooked or denied financing by traditional financial institutions. Easol Capital is specifically designed for experience creators. Easol Capital, powered by Lenkie, leverages data captured on the Easol platform, which provides powerful signals about the growth and health of businesses on its platform, allowing Lenkie to provide fair and flexible funding offers, tailored specifically to each creator. 

How funding works 

• Apply in 3 minutes, decision in 24 hours, next day cash advance. 

• One simple fee for the cash advance that's agreed on upfront. 

• Creators repay as a fixed percentage of sales (revenue based financing).

• Flexible top-ups once a creator has Lenkie funding.  

Repayments are automatically collected as a fixed percentage of weekly sales and adapt with revenue — so if a creator’s sales slow down, so do repayments.

Instead of an interest rate, creators pay a flat fee for the cash advance which gets added to the total owed amount. 

For example, a £10,000 cash advance with a 6% fee and a 25% repayment rate will have a total repayment amount of £10,000 + £600 = £10,600.

If a creator makes £6,000 in sales the first month after receiving the cash advance, the repayable amount is £1,500. If the next month's sales increase to £8,000, creators repay £2,000 that month. Repayments occur each month until the £10,600 is fully repaid. 

Why Easol Capital is better

Traditional finance providers have boxed out experience and event businesses, and the advances traditional ticketing platforms provide, whilst nominally free, lock creators into exclusive contracts with punitive terms and hefty fees. Creators are charged up to 15% of total turnover in booking fees, and advances are typically extended for only a few weeks, which doesn’t match the sales cycle of an events business. The financing options make it difficult for creators to manage their cash flow and grow their business. 

Easol Capital, powered by Lenkie, is different. It is specifically built for the events industry and the passionate creators looking to grow their businesses on the Easol platform. Easol creators get a fast, flexible, and transparent financing product with a low capital fee – an offer found nowhere else in the market.

Key Metrics

Easol Capital has had a huge effect on the acquisition and retention of experience businesses onto the Easol platform. Offering financing to prospective creators gives them the opportunity to grow their businesses through Easol’s powerful all in one platform. 

Since its launch in April 2022, Lenkie has dispersed £1 million to creators through Easol Capital. It has given businesses the cash they need to scale their existing events, expand their offering, and manage their cash flow in line with their sales on the Easol platform. With the help of Lenkie cash advance, Unplugged, a cabin rental business offering a digital detox experience, grew their revenue by 135%. 

90% funding renewal rate 

Given the positive results on their first round of funding, 90% of financed creators returned to Easol Capital for more funding.