MarketInvoice has raised a further £6m in its latest funding round led by existing investor Northzone and the family office of Paul Forster, the parties have announced.
The peer-to-peer invoice finance platform has now raised almost £500m since its launch in 2011. The latest investment will be put towards broadening the product range and taking on retail investors.
Since its inception the monthly funding rate has climbed to an impressive £30m. Following chancellor George Osborne’s confirmation of an ‘Innovative Finance ISA’, which will allow tax free investing in peer-to-peer finance from April 2016, MarketInvoice is also announcing that it will use the new funds to enable retail investors to access the MarketInvoice platform and gain exposure to this attractive risk-return asset class.
Launched in 2011 and based in London, MarketInvoice has helped hundreds of businesses overcome the lengthy payment terms of their customers. More than £475m has been raised through the platform, with businesses using the funds to hire more staff, launch new products and pay their suppliers.
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In August 2013, the UK government – via the British Business Bank – began lending to UK small businesses through MarketInvoice. This partnership has now seen more than £50m funded to UK small businesses.
Investor Northzone is a technology investment fund. The partnership has to date raised seven funds and invested in some 100 technology-enabled companies. The current portfolio includes companies such as Spotify, Avito.ru, Trustpilot, WideSpace and SpaceApe. The company has offices in London, Stockholm, Oslo, Copenhagen and New York.
Paul Forster co-founded Indeed.com in 2004 and led the company as CEO through rapid growth to a successful exit. Indeed is a giant of the online job search market and was acquired in 2012 by Recruit Co – one of the world’s largest HR services companies.
Under Paul’s stewardship Indeed.com grew from start-up to market leader, with over 1,000 employees and 180 million monthly unique users today.
Anil Stocker, co-founder and CEO of MarketInvoice, said the company’s mission is to “become the destination for small businesses looking for working capital finance”.
“This oxygen of funding for UK businesses is a poorly served market and it represents a huge opportunity,” he said. “We want to offer small businesses easy access to their monthly funding needs, and enable investors – from institutions to individuals – to drive small business growth whilst earning a market beating return.”
Further reading: Crowdcube raises £6m for IPO services
