MarketInvoice hits £2bn lending milestone
MARKETINVOICE has reached £2bn of cumulative lending and expects to hit £3bn by the end of the year.
The business finance company said on Monday that the first £1bn was achieved after five years of trading and the second £1bn took just 14 months to reach.
“2017 was a productive year for MarketInvoice and we look forward to the next billion landmark before the end of the year,” said Anil Stocker (pictured), chief executive and co-founder of MarketInvoice.
“We are now servicing larger business with bigger funding requirements. Our growing institutional investor base on the platform has enabled us to support a broader pool of businesses.”
Read more: MarketInvoice partners with credit insurer Euler Hermes
The average value of invoices funded through the platform has gone from £56,495 in 2016 to £96,597 in 2017.
MarketInvoice started life as an invoice finance platform in 2011 and expanded into the unsecured business loans market last November. The London-based firm, which is a member of the Peer-to-Peer Finance Association, connects institutional and sophisticated investors with small businesses in need of funding.
MarketInvoice has secured several City funding deals over the past 12 months to support its expansion plans. Portuguese online bank Banco BNI Europa, German private bank Varengold and wealth manager Investec have all agreed to fund loans through its platform.
Read more: MarketInvoice launches new invoice finance product
“It’s great to see businesses choosing diversity in funding source,” said Stocker. “Moreover, the invoice finance and asset-based lending sector is providing more finance to UK businesses than ever before. Funding volumes are up 13 per cent year on year and stand at just over £22bn. This is the highest figure ever.”
Stocker added that he sees Open Banking as “an unrivalled opportunity” for MarketInvoice to speed up the business lending process and create innovative ways to address businesses’ cash flow problems.
Read more: Open Banking could provide £1bn boost for UK economy
