Brexit boost to business from banks
BARCLAYS and Santander have piled millions into a financial technology (fintech) company that aims to boost cashflow for British businesses.
MarketInvoice secured £26million in funding from an investment round led by the British bank and Santander’s fintech fund, InnoVentures.
European venture fund Northzone, an existing investor in the company, also participated in the fundraising, along with Israeli private credit fund Viola Credit, which will provide a loan worth up to £30million. MarketInvoice, which launched eight years ago, provides invoices and business loans to British start-ups and larger firms looking to scale up.
The company, founded in 2011 by Anil Stocker and Ilya Kondrashov, has funded over 170,000 invoices and business loans worth more than £2billion.
The new capital raised will be used to support MarketInvoice’s growth ambitions in the UK and abroad and includes investing in its risk automation and data models, expanding the business loans offering and increasing headcount.
The funds will also be used to help launch cross-border partnerships with banks. Mr Stocker, chief executive of MarketInvoice, said: “By collaborating with bank partners we will be reaching many thousands of companies here in the UK and abroad to provide for their business finance needs.
“We aim to invest in technology, data and strategic partnerships, to take MarketInvoice to the next level.”
Mr Stocker alluded to the heightened uncertainty for businesses surrounding Britain’s impending departure from the European Union.
“Now more than ever, businesses need access to stable lines of funding as they navigate choppy political and economic conditions,” he said.
“Our invoice finance solutions are designed to bridge the gap in cash flow requirements and keep UK businesses growing and exporting.”
Barclays’s new investment builds on its previous partnership with MarketInvoice that gave the bank’s customers access to the company’s invoice finance product, which was announced last August.
Ian Rand, the boss of Barclays’s business bank, said: “This investment demonstrates our commitment to the partnership we announced last summer, which offers hundreds of thousands of our SME (small and medium-sized enterprises) clients access to even more innovative forms of finance, boosting cash flow.”
‘Businesses need access to stable lines of funding’