Pipe, a Lending Startup Backed By Benioff and Shopify, Nears CEO Appointment

Pipe, one of a cluster of startups that found a niche in lending money to companies against their recurring revenues, is close to naming a new CEO to succeed co-founders Harry Hurst and Josh Mangel, who were co-CEOs until last fall, according to people familiar with the decision. Luke Voiles, an executive from payment app Block, has surfaced as a potential candidate, said a person close to the company. Update, Feb. 7: Voiles announced his appointment on LinkedIn.

The appointment, which could be announced as soon as this week, comes as rising interest rates have cooled sales at companies that got money through Pipe and its competitors. In less than two years from its founding in 2019, Pipe raised more than $300 million in funding from investors including Shopify, Slack, Okta, David Sacks’s Craft Ventures and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, selling shares at a $2 billion valuation in 2021 during the peak of the startup-funding boom.