MarketFinance’s losses widen as the lender spends for future growth
MarketFinance saw its losses increase by 13 per cent last year as the lender “laid the foundations” for future growth.
The invoice finance and business loans provider posted losses of £10.08m for the year ended 31 December 2019, compared to a loss of £4.72m in 2018.
Operating losses rose to £9.08m in 2019 from £3.58m in 2018, while group revenue remained relatively flat at £6.02m.
MarketFinance attributed the larger losses to investment in technology and new products to produce future growth.
Read more: MarketFinance secures £10m grant to expand product range
“Losses increased by 113 per cent as we devoted resource to moving to a multi-product platform, particularly in building out technology and product teams that could ensure our platform would scale efficiently,” Anil Stocker, co-founder and chief executive of MarketFinance, said in the company’s full-year results, filed with Companies House.
“The work that has been done to achieve this has put us in a strong position for growth in 2020.
“During the course of 2019 we made significant progress in moving to become a multi-product company- we launched a term loan offer (advancing £9m during the year) and laid the foundations for other financing products we plan to launch in 2020.”
MarketFinance highlighted that its partnership with Barclays last year was a key company priority, with the platform becoming the invoice finance solution for the bank’s small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME) customers.
Read more: Barclays begins deploying funding through MarketInvoice
The lender said it is “active conversations” with several large-scale distribution partners and will use its knowledge from existing partnerships to ensure they are as impactful as possible
“Strategic partnerships with financial institutions, banks and other large SME service providers are important in how we think about reaching new customers and take MarketFinance to the next level,” Stocker said.
Read more: MarketFinance warns of looming cashflow crisis for SMEs
MarketFinance said that some of its borrowers have seen a significant increase in demand for their products and services as a result of Covid-19, with their revenue growth supported by the lender’s products providing their working capital.
Meanwhile, the lender added that it is working with other customers that have been negatively impacted by the pandemic.
MarketFinance said it was proud to be accredited to the coronavirus business interruption loan scheme (CBILS) and expects to build many new lasting relationships with new customers and investors through lending under the scheme.
“MarketFinance’s provision of both invoice finance and commercial loans through the CBILS schemes is likely to generate considerable demand and we are proud to be doing our bit to help UK SMEs during this unprecedented time,” Stocker said.
As well as the economic and commercial impact of Covid-19, the platform listed government regulation, political uncertainty and fraud and credit risk as principal risks and uncertainties.
Rising interest rates and foreign exchange volatility could also impact the cost of borrowing, the lender added.