SKROL emerged from stealth this week with a $1.2 million pre-seed funding round led by David Rosskamp’s Magnetic Capital, a venture fund that was an early investor in Cassau’s previous startup, Grover. SKROL utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) to assist with acquiring and transforming SMBs, including providing them with fintech services.
Founder Michael Cassau said he plans to acquire 5,000 SMBs over the next four years, an average of more than three per day. He will achieve that by leveraging AI to drive operational efficiency and growth.
Small businesses represent 99% of businesses worldwide and employ 61.6 million people in the United States. SMBs are ripe for improvement, as 82% fail due to cash flow issues. More than half of owners, 56%, say digitalization is too expensive, while 84% struggle with personnel issues. Half of the SMBs are owned by people 55 and up, making succession planning another consideration for the estimated $10 trillion sector.
Enter SKROL, whose vision is to combine the startup world’s access to talent, technology and capital with the stable, tried-and-true business models of SMBs.
“Many global economies are grappling with the dual challenge of an aging population and small-to-mid-sized businesses in desperate need of modernization,” said Cassau. “Our mission is to breathe new life into these vital economic engines by equipping them with the three startup cores essential for success: customer acquisition, access to capital and access to talent. By preserving the rich heritage of these businesses while integrating innovative strategies from the tech startup world, we will unlock their full potential to drive economic progress for decades ahead.”
“Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing the SMB sector like never before, optimizing operational workflows and business acquisition at an unprecedented pace,” said Christopher Silva, co-founder and CTO. “With our advanced AI tools, SMBs can easily identify, evaluate and manage opportunities, ensuring sustainable growth and competitiveness in a sector so critical to our global economy.”
SKROL’s proprietary AI-powered technologies, including SKROL Mining, SKROL Flow and SKROL Score, streamline the acquisition process and ensure strategic alignment with the company’s goals. SKROL Mining employs datasets to identify potential acquisition opportunities from every region, scanning through more than 500,000 active listings to pinpoint promising prospects. SKROL Flow allows users to build their deal flow based on their needs, providing visibility at the portfolio level, including aggregated KPIs with the possibility to zoom in to the deal level, assisting in creating tailored acquisition deals. SKROL AI leverages user feedback to refine AI-generated documents while ensuring complete privacy and confidentiality through full encryption and strict NDA compliance.
SKROL leverages AI technology to match the supply of small businesses with the demand of professionals seeking to become CEOs and secure capital to fuel their growth. After the acquisition, SKROL applies its tech startup expertise in areas like customer acquisition, access to capital, and talent development to optimize the operations of these small businesses.
Recognizing that many small businesses are underbanked and reluctant to switch providers, SKROL builds and integrates specialized fintech services to better serve their financial needs. SMBs are impenetrable for most startups. Selling into the existing SMB world is nearly impossible, so SKROL decides to buy them first with its customer acquisition platform and establish critical fintech services.
Cassau spent nine years building Grover, which allows companies to rent technology instead of buying it. He brought some Grover talent with him, including Silva and Mitja Sadar, the co-founder and CFO.