UK based Market Invoice has announced the closing of a $6 million funding round led by Northzone Venture Capital and Paul Forster. The funding will go towards expanding their workforce and helping them grow their invoice payment solution.
Providing advanced Payments for invoice receipts, Market Invoice operates a lending marketplace for investors and companies. With invoices in hand from their customers, companies can list their proof of sales on Market Invoice, where investors bid to provide loans based on the underlying invoice. Announcing the funding through the Sunday Times, £500 million in loans have been transacted through their platform since 2011, with £190 million processed in 2014.
Market Invoice’s growth is part of an overall strong trend of update of alternative finance platforms in the UK. Led by Zopa and RateSetter, P2P lending is quickly becoming a solution for many small and medium size business (SMB) owners to source new loans. In addition, a wide array of equity Crowdfunding platforms such as Seedrs and SyndicateRoom is providing investors with alternatives to stocks while offering a funding solution for startups.
In this regard, Market Invoice is also successfully gaining traction as an alternative to banks, of which business use their platform to secure short term loans. As part of the operating model, Market Invoice has been able to partner with service firms that support SMBs such as KPMG and Sage of the UK.
