MarketInvoice launches new invoice finance product
MARKETINVOICE has launched a new invoice finance product that it expects will play a “big role” in helping the platform double its lending this year.
MarketInvoice Pro offers businesses an open funding line against their outstanding invoices, in contrast to the peer-to-peer lender’s core invoice-by-invoice finance product.
“This is the first new product since we launched in 2012, so we’re very excited about that,” chief executive and co-founder Anil Stocker (pictured) told Peer-to-Peer Finance News.
“We built this product because of demand from our customers. We launched in the market with a single, invoice-by-invoice transaction product, but as we became a bigger brand and attracted more borrowers, they told us that they wanted a credit line backed by their invoices.
“So this is really great for companies that are looking to grow and have a permanent, regular need for funding.”
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MarketInvoice Pro is designed for slightly larger companies, who turn over more than £1m per year, compared to the platform’s original product that can be used by companies that are turning over as little as £100,000 per year.
“This is a £21bn market in the UK that’s traditionally been dominated by the banks,” said Stocker. “A lot of people will be very attracted to our new product and we’ll be able to take a big market share away from the banks.”
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MarketInvoice has funded invoices worth over £1.1bn to date and is aiming to double its lending in 2017.
“Pro will play a very big role in [meeting that target] because when a company starts to use Pro, they do regular draw-downs and it’s for larger amounts, so the volume that they put onto the platform is far greater than the clients who are doing invoice by invoice,” said Stocker.
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MarketInvoice said it has a customer retention rate of 81 per cent and that lending has increased four-fold over the last 12 months, providing an average of £2,196 every minute to UK businesses.
Unlike most P2P lenders, MarketInvoice does not accept any retail money – its investors are high-net-worth individuals and institutions.
Read the full interview with Anil Stocker in the upcoming print edition of Peer-to-Peer Finance News.