British finance firm MarketInvoice wins bank funds

Ascory Bank AG

26/03/2018 24:01

By Emma Rumney
    LONDON, March 26 (Reuters) - Two European banks will lend
135 million pounds ($191 million) to UK businesses through
intermediary finance firm MarketInvoice, the British company
said on Monday.
    Portuguese online bank Banco BNI Europa and German
investment bank Varengold Bank AG  VG8G.DE  will lend 90 million
pounds and 45 million pounds respectively, adding to a
three-fold increase in the finance available from institutional
investors through MarketInvoice's online platform since 2014.
    MarketInvoice lends investors' money to UK businesses, with
unpaid invoices often acting as collateral. It said the growth
in funding from institutional investors will help it participate
in larger finance deals. 
    "The volume and value of invoices we're funding is higher
than ever before," said Anil Stocker, CEO and co-founder of
MarketInvoice.
    "Our growing institutional investor base on the platform has
enabled us to support a broader pool of businesses."
    Institutional investors, including banks and pension funds,
are increasingly warming to alternative finance providers like
MarketInvoice, as well as peer-to-peer platforms like Funding
Circle or Zopa, which sprung up as banks retreated from small
business lending following the financial crisis.  
    While seen as riskier than traditional forms of lending, the
sector can offer comparatively high returns in an era of low
interest rates. 
    Institutional investors accounted for 34 percent of
peer-to-peer property lending, 28 percent of peer-to-peer
business lending and 32 percent of peer-to-peer consumer lending
in 2017, according to research published last December.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N1O768N
    Lukas Diehl, executive vice president of marketplace banking
at Varengold Bank, said increasing the lender's investment was a
"straightforward decision".
    "The MarketInvoice model has proven itself to be a dynamic
marketplace servicing a vast swathe of businesses," he said. 
    MarketInvoice, whose other institutional investors include
the British Business Bank and local governments, has lent more
than 2 billion pounds to UK companies since its launch in 2011.
($1 = 0.7068 pounds)

 (Reporting by Emma Rumney; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)
 ((Emma.Rumney@thomsonreuters.com; +442075428644;))