Tightening Wholesale Conditions Leads Next-Generation Finance Provider MarketInvoice To Channel £1 Million Of Funding To SMEs In Last Month Alone

• MarketInvoice announces record month for invoice auctions, with over £1 million in finance accessed by 50 SMEs via its online platform in December 2011 alone. Over £3.8 million through over 100 invoice auctions have now been successfully funded since launch

• Largest single auction to date of £334,000 successfully completed and funded by 9 different professional investors simultaneously

As the Bank of England warns about tightening wholesale finance conditions, data from online invoice trading platform MarketInvoice has indicated that larger companies have now started to look for alternative means of short term working capital funding. The online invoice trading platform for growing SMEs, has announced it saw a record month in December 2011 with over £1 million channelled to 50 registered companies. This takes the total volume of finance channelled to SMEs via its online platform to over £3.8 million, just 11 months after MarketInvoice launched in February 2011.

Over 100 invoice auctions have been successfully funded since launch, with capital coming from institutional investors, family offices, asset managers and high net worth individuals. The largest single auction of £334,000 was successfully closed in the last month, with the funds for this auction being provided by a pool of 9 professional investors simultaneously.

Tough credit conditions
These fresh figures come at a time when SMEs are still finding it difficult to raise working capital in the current economic climate, with last week’s Bank of England Credit Conditions Survey indicating that in the three months to December 2011 the availability of credit to small and large businesses largely remained unchanged from the previous quarter. The report also revealed that where traditional funding is available to SMEs, it is increasingly expensive and its terms are onerous which results in it being less effective as a tool to help owners run and grow their businesses during these tough economic times. Against this backdrop, in the last three months alone, data from MarketInvoice has indicated an in increase in the average size of companies wanting to make use of the invoice auction platform as a complement to traditional funding lines. These businesses come from a wide range of sectors, and, with revenues between £10 and £25 million, are all seeking balanced growth out of the recessionary environment. .

Anil Stocker, Co-founder and Director of MarketInvoice says: “Invoice auction volume is growing hugely at the moment, and the companies that are looking for alternative forms of short term funding are coming from diverse UK business sectors, including services, manufacturing, and construction, as well as many UK exporters. Interestingly, over the last few months we have seen a shift in the size of companies looking for short term funding, with an increasing number of larger companies looking to raise flexible capital when they most need it. With traditional methods looking increasingly expensive and onerous, and smaller businesses also struggling with late payments as their customers often now take between 60 to 90 days to pay their invoices, we expect this trend to continue well into 2012.”

“Importantly, the Coalition Government is beginning to take notice of next generation finance platforms such as MarketInvoice with Vince Cable recently announcing an industry-led taskforce which will examine the challenges business owners face in diversifying their finance sources, especially in looking beyond traditional bank products.”