Wayflyer Funds Online Investment
Online vendors in need of cashflow for growth are the clients Wayflyer is looking for. The Dublin-based lender provides short-term, revenue-based finance, through which borrowers repay loans via percentages of their daily sales. The lender says the finance option is useful for companies that have dependable sales and growth trajectories, and who need credit faster than traditional lenders can cater for.
Wayflyer was established by Aidan Corbett and Jack Pierse and began trading in early 2020. The venture says it had loaned out €28m by last November and expects lending to be in excess of €80m by March 2021.
CEO Corbett previously founded consultancy and data analytics company Conjura, while Pierse worked with Liam Casey’s Highway1 accelerator in San Francisco.
Wayflyer offers cash advances from €4,000 to over €1m to e-commerce companies that have annual revenue of at least €200,000. The loans incur a once-off fixed fee, which can range from 4% to 12% depending on Wayflyer’s analysis of the borrower’s business health. A repayment rate is also calculated and levied as a percentage of daily sales until the loan is paid off.
For example, a €100,000 cash advance from Wayflyer with a fixed fee of 8% and a repayment rate of 5% would entail daily repayments of 5% of sales revenue until €108,000 has been paid back. According to Wayflyer, the arrangement would suit online vendors who need cash quickly for inventory or online marketing.
Wayflyer evaluates the eligibility of client loan requests based on performance data such as customer base and purchasing behaviour, Facebook or Google ad spend, and seasonal sales trends. Almost threequarters of Wayflyer’s business is in the US, though it also operates in Ireland, the UK, Australia and New Zealand.
Wayflyer’s Irish clients have included Ambr Eyewear, which sells light-filtering glasses. The business sourced €25,000 through Wayflyer for stock purchases and marketing, with a fixed fee of 7.5% and a repayment rate of 8%.
According to Ambr Eyewear co-founder Dan Nugent, Wayflyer’s cash and additional advice on how to market itself more effectively helped Ambr triple its annual sales. “Wayflyer recommends how much we spend in each campaign to get the best return, while giving us the cash to do so,” he says.