MarketInvoice, a London-based fintech invoice platform company, is known for enabling small-to-medium enterprises to sell unpaid invoices through an online platform in order to gain capital loans. According to CNBC, MarketInvoice has raised £56 million — of which £26 million was in a funding round led by Barclays and Santander and £30 million was in debt facility from Viola Credit. Viola Credit and Northzone also participated in the equity fundraising.
Founded by Ilya Kondrashov and Anil Stocker, MarketInvoice plans to use the debt funding towards the company’s loan offering. And Stocker said that the new capital will boost its business in the U.K. and help it forge additional partnerships with banks with a focus on cross-border tie-ups.
“We’re using this money to scale the business here in the U.K., which means delivering on the strategic partnership that we have with Barclays and investing more in tech and data,” said Stocker in an interview with CNBC. “We also have an eye now through the strategic partnerships — especially with Santander — to go abroad to see how we can work in European countries or further afield working with their business units.”
Last year, Barclays bought a significant minority stake in MarketInvoice in the form of a strategic investment. As a result, Barclays’ business clients will gain access to MarketInvoice’s invoice platform.
As MarketInvoice connects investors with borrowers through its digital platform, it has been compared to lenders like LendingClub and Funding Circle. However, MarketInvoice is different from its competitors as it is more about connecting institutional investors with small business customers. Stocker pointed out that 75% of investors that use MarketInvoice are financial institutions.
Some of the financial institutions that use MarketInvoice include The British Business Bank, Varengold, and Banco BNI Europa. So far, MarketInvoice has funded over £2 billion in loans to U.K. businesses since the service launched seven years ago.
