iwocaPay To Help Businesses, Suppliers With Unpaid Invoices

Small business lending FinTech iwoca has launched its new iwocaPay service intended to alleviate the woes of unpaid invoices by paying suppliers instantly while allowing businesses to pay on their own time, according to a press release.

The launch comes amid a crunch on trade credit, which has seen one in four businesses worrying that they won’t survive the current financial climate, with 40 percent waiting on 10,000 pounds ($12,665) in unpaid invoices, the release states. Many customers are trying to get longer payment terms to accommodate the coronavirus-related financial uncertainty, and suppliers are looking to cut the terms instead.

Research by iwoca, published in the company’s document “Levelling the ‘Paying’ Field” seeks to set up a number of new ways for businesses to help stave off the worst effects of the pandemic’s fiscal binds.

Among those is the dual handling of both the problems customers are having paying invoices and also the issues of suppliers who need the money immediately, the release states. When a customer chooses to use iwocaPay, they can set mandates for themselves for up to 90 days to pay what they owe.

Meanwhile, iwoca will pay the suppliers immediately for between 150 pounds ($190) and 15,000 pounds ($19,000), according to the company website.

The new tech should be a boon for the many businesses on both sides of the equation that are suffering, including 6.3 percent that say they owe between 20,000 pounds ($25,331) and 50,000 pounds ($63,327) to suppliers since the pandemic began unraveling the economy, according to the release.

Christoph Rieche, co-founder and CEO of iwoca, said the idea is to make the whole system fairer.

“What’s emerging is a concerning game of tug-of-war between small businesses as they look to survive and plan for the future,” Rieche said in the release. “Buyers can’t pay their invoices because they don’t have the revenues, and sellers are being asked to provide longer payment terms to ease the strain whilst already sitting on a growing backlog of unpaid invoices.”

Earlier this year, iwoca also debuted the OpenLending tool, allowing businesses to get easier access to financing.