MarketInvoice on scale-up drive after kicking off series B fundraising
MARKETINVOICE embarked on in its latest fundraising round over the summer, as it eyes new strategic partnerships to scale up the business.
The peer-to-peer business and invoice finance platform, which unveiled a partnership with Barclays last month, said in its latest annual report that it commenced a series B fundraise in the second half of 2018.
The firm said it has secured £18.6m in funding to date. MarketInvoice raised £7.2m from Polish private equity firm MCI Capital in July 2016, and raised £6m from Nordic venture capital firm Northzone in August 2015.
“We will continue to invest in building our products and technology to the best in the market, whilst growing and scaling our customer base and our revenue,” said chief executive Anil Stocker (pictured).
“Our existing equity investors are excited about our growth plans and mission, and in 2018 we will further strengthen our business with new strategic partnerships.”
MarketInvoice announced last month that Barclays had taken a minority stake in the business, opening up the high street bank’s SME client base to MarketInvoice’s offering. Bilal Mahmood, spokesperson for MarketInvoice, told Peer2Peer Finance News that Barclays would fund close to £1bn-worth of invoices via the platform over the next few years.
MarketInvoice’s financial statements for the 12 months to 31 December 2017 also showed that it narrowed its losses to £4.2m from £5.9m in 2016.
Turnover rose by 12.6 per cent year on year to £5m.
Read more: MarketInvoice secures £100m of institutional funding for larger invoice finance deals
Stocker described 2017 as a “solid year.”
“We crossed the £5m on total revenue, with our operating loss down 23 per cent versus 2016,” he said.
“In the first half of the year we prioritised key projects within the business and completed key investment in our product set, which helped us reduce our administrative cost base while still growing our revenue.”
The annual report also showed that directors’ pay totalled £201,999 last year, down from £248,000 in 2016. The highest-paid director was paid £106,097, down from £124,000.
Read more: MarketInvoice joins NatWest’s SME finance panel