SME News September 2017

SME NEWS / September 2017 15 their support of our mission.” “We look forward to building on this relationship as we scale into larger funding lines through our new MarketInvoice Pro product. I’m sure we’ll see many more examples of this type of collaboration in the coming months.” On reaching the £1.5b milestone, Anil Stocker added: “Our whole team is proud to be supporting the back-bone of the British economy – businesses doing great work in media, technology, design, construction, manufacturing, education, and many more. This is a huge milestone for us as a funding platform. We started the company to provide businesses with choice, flexibility and an easy-to-use funding solution. Companies have been able to access funding from £10,000 to £3 million against invoices, to fund their working capital, which is vital to the success of small companies dealing with growing orders and long payment terms. This funding has supported fast growing companies to launch new products, hire more staff, and export to new markets.” Looking ahead, MarketInvoice’s main strategic ambition is to broaden its reach to be able to support a wider range of businesses, from start-ups to larger businesses looking to scale up. The company aims to help even more companies get paid faster by financing their invoices, so business owners can save time and focus on running their business. Varengold Bank AG to provide £45m to UK SMEs throughMarketInvoice Funding the Future Business finance company MarketInvoice has signed an agreement with Varengold Bank AG to provide £45m funding annually on its invoice finance platform. This will fund working capital solutions for businesses across the UK. Overall, sums advanced to UK businesses from institutional investors via MarketInvoice have increased more than 4-fold since 2014 from £27.8m to £116.3m in 2017. Cumulative funding from institutions stands at £296.2m which represents a quarter (26%) of the total funds advanced to UK businesses. MarketInvoice has reached the landmark milestone of providing £1.5b funding to UK businesses. The first £1b was achieved after 5 years of trading in December 2016 and just 10 months later, the company has reached £1.5b. Supporting 18,700 jobs at the businesses MarketInvoice serves, over 70,000 invoices have been funded to help ease cash flow and become an enabler for growth and expansion. August 2017 was a record funding month at MarketInvoice since it launched. £74.1m worth of invoices were funded to businesses across the UK, a 109.4% increase on August 2016 (£35.4m). The recent increase in interest from global institutions and rise in funding levels has come since the launch of MarketInvoice Pro and mirrors the up-take of the product by UK businesses. MarketInvoice Pro is a confidential invoice discounting facility, launched earlier this year, offering businesses a funding line against their outstanding invoices. This product upgrades the MarketInvoice offer from its long-standing invoice-by-invoice product called Select. Dan Walker, Head of London Office, of Varengold Bank AG commented: “We have been looking at the fintech sector for some time. MarketInvoice and its peer-to-peer invoice finance platform presented a fitting opportunity for us. In particular, we were attracted by their products, approach to risk management and ambition for growth.” Additionally, Anil Stocker, CEO and co-founder of MarketInvoice, commented on this project and how it would impact the UK SME market. “Institutions have played a significant role in our growth story and over the past few years. This commitment from Varengold is further proof of our ability to provide finance to high growth businesses across the country, we’re excited by Funding the Future g