"Flow gave us what we needed between rounds: capital that let us keep investing in growth, and a partner who never slowed us down. They were seasoned software investors who understood our business, and when we closed our $75M round a year later, we did it on the strength of the numbers that capital helped us build." — Grayson Morris, CEO of Performio
Key takeaways
Performio was founded in 2006 to solve a problem hiding in nearly every company: somewhere in the finance department, someone spends days each month calculating sales commissions in Excel, and getting them wrong costs more than money, because errors corrode the trust of the very people driving revenue. Performio automated those calculations, gave reps real-time transparency into their pay, and grew into a leader in incentive compensation management, subsequently expanding into the United States.
The strongest endorsement of the business came from an unusual place: its buyers. Best friends Grayson Morris and Luke Teeple spent 27 months searching for the right software company to acquire, contacting some 5,200 businesses across the US, then Europe and New Zealand, before finding Performio. Out of thousands, this was the one: a universal pain point, a product customers loved, and room to grow. They acquired it in June 2019, and the thesis proved out fast: North American revenue more than doubled in 2020, the team grew from 75 to over 125, and the platform passed 50,000 users, processing over $2 billion in commissions for customers like Johnson & Johnson, Veeva, and Vodafone.
By 2021, Performio was growing about 75% a year and could see the shape of its next major equity round. The goal was to reach it on the company's own terms, with the metrics that command a premium valuation, rather than raise early and sell a larger piece of a business that was still compounding. What it needed in the meantime was a lender, and the right kind: between rounds, the last thing a management team needs is a capital partner who requires managing.
Flow Capital provided US$3M in interest-only venture debt in June 2021, and the structure said everything about the relationship. Covenant-light, because the terms were built around Performio's plan and stage. Interest-only, so cash flow kept going into the product instead of principal. No board seat, no approvals to chase; a structure that reflected trust in the plan. Flow understood what the capital was for and then did the hardest thing for a lender to do: stayed out of the way while staying available.
Performio came to Flow having grown North American revenue by more than 100% in 2020, but the deeper signal was validation money can't buy: its two owners had screened some 5,200 software companies across three continents before choosing to acquire this one. A universal pain point (80% of its customers ran commissions on spreadsheets before Performio), enterprise-grade recurring revenue, and a leadership team that had already proven it could double a business. Flow's underwriting largely confirmed what one of the most thorough buyers in software had concluded two years earlier.
In the year following the loan, Performio doubled its customer base. The company invested in research and development (advanced data integrations and AI-driven features that kept the platform ahead of evolving customer needs) and deepened integrations with widely used CRMs like Salesforce, attracting larger clients and lifting customer satisfaction. Healthy cash flow supported strategic hiring across engineering and sales.
The results spoke in the language equity investors understand: 77% YoY revenue growth. In June 2022, Performio closed a US$75 million growth investment led by JMI Equity, one of the most respected software investors in the market. Flow’s facility had done exactly what a bridge should do: carried the company to a bigger, better round than it could have raised before.
Performio continues to build its position as a leader in incentive compensation management, expanding globally with offices across the US, Australia, and Europe; and pushing into the AI era, with AI-powered compensation management and implementation timelines cut from months to weeks.
Flow Capital is proud to have played a part in that trajectory. Beyond providing growth capital, Flow Capital works closely with portfolio companies as a long-term partner, offering strategic support, industry expertise, and a network that helps founders grow.
About Performio
Performio is an Incentive Compensation Management (ICM) software built for complexity and scale with AI at its core. With a no-code plan builder and extensible data model, Performio makes it easy for enterprises and mid-market companies to automate commissions, improve transparency, and adapt quickly to change. Organizations worldwide trust Performio to deliver accurate payouts and actionable insights that drive sales performance. Learn more at performio.co.
About Flow Capital
Flow Capital Corp. is a publicly listed provider of flexible growth capital, alternative debt solutions, and small equity investments for high-growth companies. Since its inception in 2018, the company has provided financing to businesses in the US, the UK, and Canada, helping them achieve accelerated growth without the dilutive impact of equity financing or the complexities of traditional bank loans. Flow Capital focuses on revenue-generating, VC-backed, and founder-owned companies seeking $1 to $15 million in capital to drive their continued expansion.
High-growth companies seeking flexible, minimally dilutive, founder-friendly growth capital are encouraged to apply at https://www.flowcap.com/get-funding
