MarketInvoice Celebrates Delivering £150 Million of Working Capital to UK Business

LONDON, April 11, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

MarketInvoice, Europe's biggest online invoice trading platform, is celebrating crossing the threshold of £150 million advanced to British businesses - a huge triumph for the UK's burgeoning alternative finance sector.

Founded in 2011, the platform funded £3 million in its first year, £30 million in its second year, £66 million in its third year, and over £50 million in the first quarter of 2014.

Fast growing UK businesses are turning to MarketInvoice, because in contrast to traditional invoice finance, MarketInvoice offers funding with transparent rates, no lock in period, no debentures, and with no requirement to put all invoices through the platform.

The £150 million, which has come from both the UK government and institutional investors, has been channelled via thousands of transactions to businesses up and down the country, giving them working capital to grow (please find customer quotes below).

Thanks to the sophisticated algorithms which power the MarketInvoice platform, money can be in a client's account within 90 minutes of signing up, and the loss rate for investors is 0.04%.

Co-founder and CEO Anil Stocker said:

"It wasn't so long ago that we were advancing our first £6,000, against an invoice issued to the Post Office.

Now, in just a short space of time, we've put £150 million straight into the real economy; funding businesses that are hiring, growing, exporting and forging ahead with new products and services across a wide range of sectors."

Customer quotes:

"We are very pleased with MarketInvoice - it always goes smoothly. It was a match made in heaven - MarketInvoice was responsive when banks were not." Jennifer Bentley, Finance Director, 3DD

"I have to say I love MarketInvoice. It's easy, fast, affordable, flexible and releases working capital in hours. It's been the best support we needed at this inflection point of growth in the business." Charlotte Knight, Founder, G'Nosh

More quotes - and case studies - available on request.

ABOUT MARKETINVOICE

Businesses use MarketInvoice to selectively sell their invoices to a network of global investors.

The online platform is a working capital solution, giving SMEs immediate access to funds otherwise tied up for between 30 to 120 days.

Launched in 2011, MarketInvoice has helped hundreds of businesses overcome the lengthy payment terms of their large customers. More than £150m has been raised through the platform, with SMEs using the funds to hire more staff, launch new products and pay their suppliers.

MarketInvoice is an entirely new type of funding solution, accessible to a wide range of UK SMEs.  Businesses are able to sell single invoices online, only as and when they need to. There are no contracts, hidden fees or personal guarantees; new clients can sign up, sell an invoice and draw down funds on the same day.

Invoices are funded by a global pool of sophisticated investors, made up of high net worth individuals, asset managers and hedge funds. As of August 2013, the UK government also began investing in SME invoices via MarketInvoice as part of their Business Finance Partnership scheme. This initiative will see £40m channelled through the platform over a 12 month period.

Invoices sold on MarketInvoice must be due to large corporate customers or public sector organisations, and can be as small as £5k or as large as £1.5m+. There is a clear and transparent fee structure, with clients paying between 1-3% on average per invoice. Businesses using the platform must be turning over at least £100k to get started.