When PYMNTS last spoke to supply chain financer C2FO earlier this year, the company’s Chief Product Officer Kevin Daniels said that its services accelerate the payment to suppliers by 22 days. With so many suppliers across the U.S. and Europe struggling to get paid on time and challenged by managing their cash flow, it’s no wonder why C2FO’s business would be booming.
According to more recent reports, it appears that the firm is only looking up from here. Reports released Monday (April 20) by Computer Weekly revealed that C2FO is currently processing about $1 billion worth of invoices every quarter in its efforts to provide suppliers with working capital until their buyers settle bills. But C2FO senior vice president Colin Sharp told reporters that at this rate, the company is looking at processing $1 billion in invoices on a weekly basis.
Part of this success, he said, is because of government participation in the service. “Governments love us because it frees up cash for businesses to reinvest,” he told reporters.
Indeed, government procurement programs are largely responsible for the rise in alternative lending and cash flow management tools like C2FO. In providing small, government suppliers with working capital, it not only improves the cash flow of that business, but reinvests money into the national economy.
These government initiatives to work with supply chain financers, it has been shown, promote adoption of these tools by the private sector.
C2FO also employs an early payment program, an increasingly popular mechanism in such services. The tool allows buyers to obtain a discount on their purchases for paying an invoice earlier than the deadline, a habit that combats the late payment problem seen throughout the world today. According to recent findings, many small suppliers in the U.K. must wait up to 120 days to get paid, while similar extensions have been seen among U.S. suppliers, too. In separate research, it was found that suppliers across Western Europe are consistently paid, on average, 21 days past due.