University Incubator Unleashes Invoice Financing Firm

The University of Warwick has given birth to a new small business finance player, which has just emerged from the school’s Software Incubator. Reports Monday (Nov. 23) said Funding Invoice has spun out of the university and begun providing factoring services to SMEs.

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According to reports, Funding Invoice connects small businesses with professional investors, who can then purchase up to 90 percent of the value of a company’s outstanding invoices. The company then allows businesses to collect payment from their corporate buyers themselves in an effort to preserve the business relationship, the company said.

Funding Invoice is the result of Warwick University economics graduate Aamar Aslam, reports said.

“While I was studying for my degree, I set up a chauffeured card service to take VIP clients from large companies to and from the airport,” Aslam told reporters. “I realized that many chauffeurs were doing business with these companies but often not getting paid for 60 days, which was unsustainable for them. Funding Invoice is my response to that problem.”

He added that business users of the platform pay a fee straight to investors and not to Funding Invoice itself.

The Funding Invoice founder also pointed to recent government efforts to combat late payments in the U.K.

“The government’s move to stop big companies preventing smaller businesses using invoices to access finance is a welcome one,” he said. “There was no good reason for big businesses to hold this power over their suppliers.”

According to recent analysis from the ICC Banking Commission, the gap between small and large corporations’ access to such trade financing solutions like invoice financing is widening, with the demand for factoring on the rise, despite SMEs making up 53 percent of rejections by banks when applying for such financing.