Welcome to the MarketInvoice April 2012 Newsletter.

With regards to performance on our platform, MarketInvoice has had another excellent month. We broke the £10 million barrier and have now channelled over £11 million to British and international SMEs. In March, we saw almost £3.5 million of auctions close successfully, a figure that continues to increase month on month.

In addition, we have had a busy month getting the positive message out for the alternative finance lobby. This month we have seen some excellent newspaper, television & radio coverage for the company, with the 2012 Budget and the release of the Breedon Report, both of which advocated boosting of finance options for business. In addition, we were particularly pleased that entrepreneur Will King (of King of Shaves) highlighted MarketInvoice as a great idea in an interview with the Financial Times. We, of course, agree!

Trading highlights include:

• Last month we completed 44 auctions, to a total value of £3,422,497 – a 63.7% increase on February's total, £2,090,454.
• On March 7th, we had our first million-pound auction day – a memorable moment for all of us!
• A large number of our sellers (almost 80%) have participated in multiple auctions. This is great news for us, as it shows we are providing a product business owners like, but also auctions become more competitive as the seller returns repeatedly to the platform with their invoices, thus leading to lower fees as buyers become more comfortable with the seller.

Awards and Press Coverage:

MarketInvoice were mentioned directly in the Breedon Report on the subject of innovation and the application of new technology in alternative finance, and obviously we were thrilled to have recognition at the highest level. Co-founder Anil Stocker was interviewed on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Breakfast News discussing the report.

The announcements made in the Budget to address SME funding were a step in the right direction, but what pleased us here at MarketInvoice was that the Government has committed to allocating £100million to invest through non-traditional channels and platforms (p.44, section 1.233).

We were also mentioned and covered in The Telegraph, Financial Times, Recruiter Magazine and Smarta. Anil Stocker was interviewed on Simon Mayo’s BBC Radio 2 Drivetime Show about the Next Generation Finance Consortium, which had launched that day. We featured in a double-page spread in The Times, as well as in City AM and were recently mentioned in another Financial Times article on peer-to-peer lending. MarketInvoice featured in a number of trade publications including Better Business and MarketWatch.

Further highlights:

• MarketInvoice nominated for ‘Alternative Lender of the Year’ by Credit Today – the awards ceremony will take place on 10th May.
• MarketInvoice highly commended for Best Alternative Funding Provider at the Business Moneyfacts Awards – sadly we did not win the category but we were nominated and highly commended. It is excellent to see that Alternative Finance is becoming mainstream.

Upcoming Events:

• The Next Generation Finance Consortium Open Forum – 13th April, 10:00-12:00 at UCL Engineering Building, WC1E 7JE

The NGFC will be holding an open forum where entrepreneurs are invited to attend to find out everything they need to know about how to raise finance through non-bank sources. The sessions will include short presentations, audience Q&A and networking opportunities to talk directly to our members. Click here to register

Featured Case Study: FabriQate

FabriQate is a London headquartered international app development company that has established a commanding presence in the mobile Internet space and continues to push the boundaries in mobile technology. They execute innovative and creative ideas to help clients realise their mobile app development goals for everything from to startups to Fortune 500 customers. Their clients include BMW, CNN and Nokia. Given their strong client relationships with large corporate end debtors, FabriQate was well suited to MarketInvoice’s online marketplace. Their invoices were attractive to the institutional investors and as buyers on MarketInvoice are sophisticated global investors, they understand technology and international business and are willing to fund invoices for services provided outside of the UK. Read and download full case study here