About Pipe
Pipe was founded in 2019 by Harry Hurst, Josh Mangel, and Zain Allarakhia, building a financing platform aimed at subscription-based businesses, letting companies with predictable recurring revenue, such as software-as-a-service businesses, access upfront capital by effectively selling a portion of their future subscription revenue to investors on Pipe's platform at a discount, functioning as an alternative to traditional venture debt or equity financing that let growing subscription businesses access growth capital without giving up equity or taking on traditional debt with fixed interest payments unrelated to the business's actual revenue performance. Pipe reached a $2 billion valuation relatively quickly following its founding, reflecting strong investor interest in its novel approach to financing recurring revenue businesses.
The company experienced a highly unusual and closely watched leadership crisis in November 2022, when all three co-founders, including co-CEOs Harry Hurst and Josh Mangel and chief technology officer Zain Allarakhia, abruptly announced they would step down from their executive roles simultaneously, with Hurst publicly stating the trio recognized they were "0-1 builders, not at-scale operators" better suited to a startup's earliest days than to leading a larger, scaling organization, an unusually candid and coordinated founder departure that surprised the fintech industry. The transition was further complicated by subsequently surfaced allegations regarding certain loan practices at the company. Luke Voiles, previously general manager of Square Banking at Block and before that CEO of QuickBooks Capital, was named CEO in February 2023 to lead the company going forward. Under Voiles's leadership, Pipe conducted significant workforce reductions, including cutting roughly half its approximately 150-person staff in late 2025 as part of a shift toward a leaner organizational structure focused on profitability, before Voiles himself was replaced as CEO in December 2025 by Pipe's chief product officer, Claurelle Rakipovic, a former Amazon small business lending executive, continuing a pattern of significant leadership turnover at the company since its founders' departure.
