If you’ve been researching online business line of credit facilities, you might relate to one of the following situations:

• You need immediate access to cash for a one-off purchase or a business milestone, but you know a traditional funding option will take too long to secure.
• You might have tried to get a regular overdraft with your bank, but perhaps you couldn’t get one, or if you did, you didn’t get the loan amount you needed.
• You’re located in Ireland and want a funding provider that can cater to you. You might also be looking to expand internationally.

In this article we’re going to look at funding your business using a line of credit, including how it works, when it makes sense as a funding option, and how to get started with Financefair. 

We’ll cover:

• What is a line of credit and how does it work?
• When does it make sense to get a line of credit?
• How to get an online business line of credit with Financefair
• What we do and why you should work with Financefair
• How a solar panel company doubled their contracts using a Financefair line of credit

Note: If you want to dive straight in and find out what funding we can offer you, get started by filling out our online funding application form. 

What is a business line of credit and how does it work?

In short, a business line of credit works like a digital overdraft. Many businesses need access to funding of between €10,000 to €250,000 per 12 months, and this is where a line of credit can help. 

With a line of credit, you don’t have to worry about running into the red as the capital is available to you if you need it.

Usually, you can apply for a business line of credit online with your bank or with an alternative online lender. Once you’re ready for the funds, you can submit a request directly to your provider and receive the funds via a bank transfer straight into your business bank account.

The main advantages of a line of credit is that you: 

• Can easily manage larger than usual payments for stock or staffing that you might not otherwise have the money for. 
• Aren’t limited to only working with your business bank account provider, giving you more choice. It’s also useful if you’ve had your business bank account for a short period of time, as many banks won’t lend to businesses within a certain time of the account opening. 
• Can usually draw down and pay back on your own repayment terms, either monthly or as a lump sum. After the initial 12 months have passed, you can either decide to keep the facility running for peace of mind or bring it to a close. 
• Can put it towards seasonal business expenses that may come once or twice a year. 
• Won’t have to divert customer payments to a separate bank account. You can directly request to draw down from your LoC and get the funds in your account.

When does it make sense to get a business line of credit?

When you might choose to get a line of credit depends on your needs and future business plans. It might be something you’re searching for as you aren’t happy with your business checking account overdraft – or maybe your bank didn’t grant as big an overdraft as you needed.

A line of credit is ideal for handling a larger than usual transaction, or seasonal transactions that only occur a couple of times a year. With this type of facility, you won’t face the restrictions you may get with term loans and other types of small business loans, like having to pay a fixed amount per month for a certain number of months.

Other examples of situations where a line of credit may be useful include if you:

• Are looking for hassle-free cash flow for capital expenditure – most commonly to buy stock.
• Want to fund milestone needs in the business – say you need to upgrade some equipment to keep up with demand.
• Can see a big opportunity but need funding for a larger than usual expense to fulfil.
• Went to the bank for an overdraft but were turned down or didn’t get as much as you’d hoped.
• Think you can’t get the funding elsewhere, maybe because you already have a loan.

You might also choose to keep a line of credit open after you’ve dealt with your immediate funding need and paid off what you’ve used. You have the option to keep it available to you, ready for the next big expense. 

We think of line of credit use as being driven more by the key events and milestones in your business, compared to other types of funding such as revenue based finance (RBF) which is driven more by business strategy and scale. However, a line of credit also works nicely alongside other solutions like RBF if it suits your business needs. 

Read more: Revenue based financing: What it is and how to get started

How to get an online business line of credit with Financefair

Business line of credit facilities are not very common in Ireland. At the moment, only AIB offers a credit line for their customers and we’re the only alternative provider in the country.

Our online business line of credit is both quick and easy to set up. It’s our fastest solution to get up and running, and we can advance the funding within 24 hours of your being onboarded on our platform. 

It’s easy to do since the set up is all digital – you can apply online, connect your accounting and banking with our platform and complete the fulfilment all digitally.

Here are some of the other benefits of our line of credit facility: 

• We’re the only provider in Ireland that can offer a business line of credit as a standalone product. 
• We use data analytics for visibility over ongoing performance, meaning you don’t need to continually send us bank statements or any other financial documents. 
• We collect fees via direct debit, so there’s no need for us to contact your customers, or for you to redirect payments to another bank account.
• We don’t require a personal guarantee.

Who’s a line of credit for? To qualify to use a Financefair line of credit, you must: 

• Have a debtor book.
• Be primarily B2B.
• Be able to integrate your accounting and banking software with the Financefair platform for ongoing management.
• Be a fit in our rating system: We look at a number of attributes including your business credit score, creditworthiness, credit history, experience score and business performance.

How much funding could you get?

Here are some examples from our funding calculator showing the revolving line of credit you could get depending on your annual revenue:

You can try our calculator for yourself by visiting our line of credit page. 

Our pricing for this type of facility comprises:

1. A monthly fee of 0.6-0.75% 
2. The platform joining fee 
3. Depending on a few other inputs there may be a discount

Costs typically range from 0.75% to 1.50% per 30 days, depending on the factors mentioned above. 

Here’s how to get started with our application process:

1. Apply: Complete a funding application form or contact us to arrange an appointment to speak to one of the team. 
2. Connect: You’ll need to share a few documents including your latest statutory financial statement (e.g. tax returns), business forecasts and tax clearance certificate, as well as connect your banking and accounting software.
3. Offer: Within 24 hours, you’ll receive an indicative offer.
4. Onboard: If you accept the offer, our team will onboard you onto our platform.
5. Formal offer: Once you’re credit approved, you’ll get your formal offer along with:
   1. A DocuSign link with the debenture
   2. A link to sign up to GoCardless so we can collect fees
   3. Security documentation for AML and KYC
6. Funding: Once your facility is in place, your funding will be available within 24 hours.

What we do and why you should work with Financefair

Financefair (formerly InvoiceFair) was founded by a team of finance and accounting experts in Ireland, with the objective of offering working capital solutions to help businesses grow faster. 

In the years since then, we’ve continued to innovate and our funding solutions now include invoice discounting, revenue based financing and line of credit. 

When you choose a Financefair funding solution, here’s what you’ll get:

Get an indicative offer within 24 hours

We want you to know how much funding you can get as soon as possible, and that’s why we’ll give you an indicative offer within a business day. Plus, once you’re onboarded and all documentation is complete, you’ll be able to access your line of credit within 24 hours.

We can do this because of the way we combine technology and data analytics with our experienced team, offering you a frictionless and flexible experience. Having access to real time accounts data and combining this with a conversation about your business means we know exactly how things are going, and we have the information we need to evaluate, approve and monitor the risk. We can make decisions for future funding faster and often offer more funding than other providers.

The team’s diverse knowledge and experience of financial services means we know very well that working capital ebbs and flows like a river. Some months it flows faster than others. We understand this and can work with you to adapt what we’re offering. 

Access a line of credit, plus other innovative financing solutions to help your business scale

Not only is a line of credit a useful source of hassle-free funding that you can manage on your own terms, but it also serves as an entry point to other business financing options we offer at  Financefair. As your business grows and becomes more successful, other opportunities will become available that can help you scale even further. 

Because we speak to you to get an understanding of your business, and back this up with real-time data about your accounts, we’re able to offer innovative funding solutions that are tailored to you and your unique situation. Whatever your goals for your business, we act as a funding solution for your company.

Here are some of the other advantages of working with us:

• You’ll be able to access multiple options to help grow your company: These include invoice financing, revenue based financing and line of credit.
• You can work with a local company: We’re the only provider of line of credit facilities in Ireland.
• You won’t come up against any restrictive funding concentration limits: We work with multiple funders. We explain more below, but in short, our unique business model allows us to offer more funding.
• You don’t need a personal guarantee.
• You won’t be charged any hidden annual fees or costs: Our pricing and monthly payments are clear from the outset. 

Get more funding thanks to our unique business model

One of our unique selling points is that because of our unique business model, we’re able to advance a larger amount of funds. 

Usually, traditional bank loans have strict concentration and risk rules. Banks don’t want to give more financing to a company that already has a credit line with them, which often makes it harder for you to access a higher amount of funding.

But when it comes to our funding, we don’t fund directly from our balance sheet. Instead, we partner with investors who advance the funding. That means you might get 20% from one investor, 40% from another, and so on. This diversification means it’s easier to get more funding in place, as well as top up your line of credit when needed.

How a solar panel company doubled their contracts using a Financefair line of credit

One company that took advantage of a Financefair unsecured business line of credit supplies and installs solar panels for businesses on their commercial property. 

They needed funding for a bulk purchase of solar panels to make the most of a supplier discount. Their initial plan was to use receivable financing to get €120,000 to fund this purchase. When they reached out to us, however, we realised a line of credit would be a better fit for their needs. 

We were able to offer and advance them a €250,000 line of credit upfront, instead of the original €120,000. This allowed them to fund the initial purchase they had in mind, plus use the remaining €130,000 to tender for another contract and get new business. 

This allowed them to fulfil two contracts at the same time, instead of just one.

Using the business line of credit to fund one purchase and tender another contract helped boost their credibility and their brand. Once the money came on from the completed job, they were able to pay off their outstanding balance. 

Thanks to the line of credit, they were able to:

• Get a bulk discount on their solar panel order 

• Fulfil their existing contract

• Secure another large contract

• Fund two projects instead of just one as they had done in the past

For those needing to bulk buy stock to fulfil contracts, a line of credit can work very well – and in this case, it made more sense than invoice discounting. 

Fund your business milestones with a Financefair business line of credit 

In this article we took an in-depth look at funding your business using a line of credit. We shared some examples where it works well as a funding option, then we went on to cover how you can get started with Financefair. 

If you know you have a big expense coming up that you can’t quite cover, like upgrading your equipment to cope with demand, or buying extra stock to deliver on another contract, a line of credit could be what you need. 

Reach out to us if you’re ready to get started, and let’s talk about how we can help you get your business where you want it to be.

If you’re looking online for revenue based financing, one or more of the following situations might resonate with you:

• You need cash to scale your business or for your daily business needs, but the industry means you don’t have tangible assets or your revenue is non-contractual. This means you may find it difficult to get funding from a traditional source like a bank or lender.
• You’ve been able to get funding from your bank, but it’s hard to adjust the repayment period or amount of funding. This lack of flexibility means you might struggle with repayments you can’t afford or be unable to get additional funding to put into your growing business.
• You need to know how much money you can access so you can forecast accordingly, which is not possible with traditional banks.
• You’re based in Ireland and want a funder that can cater to you. You’re potentially looking to expand internationally now or in the future. 

In this article, we’re going to take an in-depth look at revenue based financing (RBF), including how it works, when it makes sense as a funding option, and how to get started with Financefair. 

• What is revenue based financing?
• How does revenue based financing work?
• When does it make sense to choose revenue based financing?
• How to get started with Financefair
• How much does RBF cost?
• What we do and why partner with Financefair
• How Zeus Scooters used revenue based financing to scale

Note: If you’re ready to discuss the funding we can offer you to help your business growth, fill out our online funding application form. 

What is revenue based financing?

Revenue based finance is a type of funding that unlocks liquidity that’s trapped in the recurring contracted or non contracted revenue in your business. The contracted revenue is exactly what you might expect: recurring income where there’s a contract in place, for example a management agreement for a building. This is different to non-contracted revenue, like the revenue in an ecommerce business. With revenue based financing, you can fund against both contracted and non contracted future revenue.

If you have capital trapped in long-term contracts, revenue based finance allows you to get an advance on those funds. You can then use that capital to grow your business, pay for operating expenses or fulfil a new contract. If you have capital trapped in future subscriptions (e.g. subscriptions coming via Shopify or Stripe), you can also use revenue based financing to help grow your business.

The amount of funding you can access is based on your future cash flow and is therefore flexible and adjustable according to your requirements and monthly revenue streams. This is in contrast to other types of financing like a small business bank loan, which is a fixed amount with fixed monthly payments.

Revenue based finance is ideal for businesses that don’t have tangible assets but do have customers and recurring revenue, such as a subscription-based business or SaaS.

How does revenue based financing work?

Typically if you needed funding, you’d go to your bank with a set of projections and get a short term loan based on those numbers. This comes with fixed repayment terms, which you might need to renegotiate if your business underperforms against your projections. 

And if you need to extend the facility because your business is growing faster than expected, you’ll have to reapply. This leads to a lot of time spent on admin, dealing with delays and long response times, paperwork and managing the funding rather than focusing on your business.

Revenue based finance gives you the opportunity to put a working capital facility in place that’s directly connected to the growth of your business. 

For example, with Financefair you can convert up to 20% of your future annual recurring revenue (ARR) into upfront growth capital. This allows you to fund your own future without debt financing or raising capital, using your own contracts. As your business and revenue grows, so does your ability to gain access to increased funding.

We look at your projected income for the next 12 months and your expected growth rate. Based on those numbers, we can offer up to 20% of Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR), or 70% of your quarterly income. We can then advance the funds on a quarterly or monthly basis, and adjust the funding based on how much you’ll grow.

Here’s how RBF works in a growing business:

• Let’s say your business’ assumed sales growth rate is 25%, with month 1 bringing in revenue of €250,000.
• With a growth rate of 25%, here’s the expected income for the next 6 months:

• Let’s say we’ve agreed to advance funds of your first 3 months of income, and then every month after that.
• Month 1, Day 1, we’ll advance 70% of your first 3 months of income
  • That’s M1 + M2 + M3 = first advance. So €250,000 + €312,500 + €390,625 = €953,125
  • Then 70% of those months combined. So 70% of €953,125 = €667,188
  • Month 1, Day 1, we’ll advance €667,188
• At the end of Month 1, when you receive your expected €250,000 income, and will therefore be able to repay 70% of the funding Financefair advanced in the first month.
  • That’s 70% of your M1 income. So 70% of €250,000 = €175,000.
  • End of Month 1, you’ll repay €175,000.
• We’ll now be advancing funds on a month to month basis.
• We’ll look at your projected income in Month 4, which would be €488,281.
• At the end of Month 1 or beginning of Month 2, we’ll then advance 70% of your Month 4 projected income.
  • • 70% of €488,281 is €341,797.
    • Beginning of Month 2, you’ll receive €341,797 in funding from Financefair.
• At the end of Month 2, you’ll receive the expected €312,500 in income, and will repay 70% of the income received in the second month.
  • • That’s 70% of your M2 income. So 70% of €312,500 = €218,750
    • End of Month 2, you’ll repay €218,750.
• Then, we’ll look at your projected income in Month 5, which would be €610,35.
• At the end of Month 2/beginning of Month 3, we’ll then advance 70% of your Month 5 projected income.
  • 70% of €610,352 is €427,246.
  • Beginning of Month 3, you’ll receive €427,246 in funding from Financefair.
• This continues for every subsequent month.

As you can see with this example, the funding you’re advanced acts as a revolving line of credit based on your projected income of the next month, which allows you to use your own revenue to fund your growth.

It’s important to note that the amount can adjust depending on the revenue – it can increase if the revenue grows, and it can be dialled back in slower months. If the revenue projected for month 4 was actually €300,000, you could get 70% of that, which is €210,000. The good news is you’ll still get funding even if your revenue drops – it just decreases in line with your income. 

The advantages of choosing revenue based financing are:

• A lot of flexibility: As previously noted, the funding amount can grow or decrease in line with your revenue. It just takes a conversation with one of our friendly and knowledgeable team members. 
• You’ll get a line of funding that’s directly related to the growth of the business. This gives you a lot of scope for further funding, and it doesn’t matter how fast or slow your business grows. 
• No need for additional applications: You don’t have to worry about getting the amount of funding right first time, not knowing what opportunities might be on the horizon for your business. If you need more financing for more growth opportunities, there’s no need to fill in another application like you would if you wanted to extend a traditional loan – just reach out to us. 
• It’s relatively low risk, which means we can keep security to a minimum. Because the money is only out for 90 days at a time, the risk is moderate. This reduces the security documentation you need to complete when you apply. 
• There’s no dilution and it helps you increase the value of your business: Revenue based finance can help you grow your business without giving away equity. However, it does also work well alongside other forms of investments such as venture capital, private equity or angel investments. If you decide to go down this route in future, a higher ARR will help increase your company valuation which will give you better terms.

When you apply for revenue based financing, we start by looking at the cash flow projections of your business for 12 months, making sure the projections are conservative and tight so the funding is aligned accordingly, and you don’t end up over or under-borrowing. This allows us to identify the peak funding requirement – in other words, the most amount of funding you believe you’ll need in that period of time.

We then approve you for that total amount and agree on the drawdown schedule so when you have a negative cash position, you have enough to cover it. For example, we could approve a funding line of €500,000 per 12 months, but initially we might advance €200,000, and the rest when the cash position is negative. Then you can proceed for the next few months safe in the knowledge that you have a funding line at the level that you predicted you’d need. 

What happens if your revenue decreases? 

If that happens, we won’t stop your funding, but your funding line will decrease. Because we work month to month and quarter to quarter, it’s easy to make adjustments to funding in line with your projections, but it also allows you to plan in advance. 

Since we advance on a quarterly or monthly basis it also means the risk for all concerned is minimal, and this in turn means you only have to fill out a minimal amount of security documentation. Working with recurring revenue also helps risk mitigation, since we know that if the revenue has been stable for a certain number of months, it’s likely to remain stable. 

Because we’re a financial technology company, we use data analytics to expedite decisioning and ongoing monitoring, and there’s no need for you to continuously send us information about your accounts. Instead, we can analyse your transactions and have a conversation if you request to drawdown more for the next three months.  

When does it make sense to choose revenue based financing?

Revenue based financing works best for companies:

• With predictable recurring revenue
• That don’t necessarily have blue chip debtors
• That have contracted revenue or a subscription model
• That are growing fast
• With a turnover of €1 million+
• That would rather not take on debt or give away any (or more) equity

Here are some examples of scenarios where revenue based financing works well:

1. You’re a business that is looking ahead to scale and needs a capital injection. Perhaps you need to take on very skilled people to deliver a contract, or you need to buy stock. Or maybe you’ve won a contract with the government, but the payment terms are long. You might also be considering investing in upgrading your premises. If you’re a business with a few ongoing contracts, a couple more about to start, and a few more you want to tender for, a 12-month RBF facility could get you where you need to be. 
2. You’re a business that’s looking to better manage your working capital cycle rather than operate month to month. RBF can help you meet obligations, pay wages, and pay suppliers on time. Maybe a supplier offers a bulk order discount, and you want the money to place that big order. 
3. You’ve already received investment but the investors are reluctant to put more money in, or you’re reluctant to give away more equity to scale. You want to be able to tender for new contracts with peace of mind that you have the funding in place. Usually a bank would want to see the contract already signed before committing to funding, but we can set up RBF based on an existing contract and use that funding to get other contracts. RBF also works well alongside equity providers like VCs and private equity, if you choose to do that.  
4. You’ve already taken debt before and don’t want to load more on to the business. RBF is a good option if you want funding that’s more flexible, doesn’t sit on the balance sheet and doesn’t require a personal guarantee.

How much does RBF usually cost?

The pricing and terms for your revenue based financing are determined at the outset for a 12-month agreement.

Your fee will be based on:

• Your company
• Your company’s experience
• Average debtor days
• Average debtor book
• Turnover
• Funding limit
• Credit score

We believe in transparency around our pricing and you’ll be aware of all costs right from the beginning. The fees we charge are:

1. Platform fee: This is a joining fee. If you choose to renew your facility after 12 months, the renewal fee is 50% of the joining fee. 
2. Monthly facility fee: This fee is fixed and charged on the facility limit provided. 
3. Discount charge: This varies depending on your credit score. The higher your credit score, the higher the discount on your agreed pricing (and therefore the lower your overall cost of funds will be). The pricing applies to the amount of funding used in any 30 day period. 

We can offer your pricing in two different ways:

1. Per 30 days
2. As a percentage of cost of funding

Here are some examples of how much you might be able to get advanced, as well as the estimated cost per 30 days:

Please note that these are only approximations and that actual costs will vary depending on your business.

You can try our calculator for yourself by visiting our revenue based financing page. 

How to get started with Financefair

Getting started with Financefair is easy:

1. Apply: You have two options to start the funding application process:
   1. Contact us directly to discuss your funding requirements and one of our team can give you a quick indication as to whether we can provide a funding solution for your business. Call +35315252486, email busdev@financefair.com, or book an appointment with one of the team.
   2. Complete a funding application form. It takes less than 5 minutes to complete.
2. Discovery call and offer: We use this to understand: 
   1. Your revenue streams and your debtors
   2. Your business model and your pipeline
   3. If there is existing debt

Within 24 hours, we’ll get back to you. Once we receive your cash flow projections, we’ll be able to present back our proposal. 

1. Onboard: If you accept the offer, our team will onboard you onto the platform. At this point we’ll connect you with Open Banking and run the KYC and AML (to verify your identity) checks. 
2. Funding: When your facility is in place, funding will be in your bank account within 24 hours of successfully becoming a member of our platform.

To be eligible for revenue based financing, your company needs:

• To be a limited company with at least two directors
• To have been trading for at least one year
• A minimum turnover of €1 million

The information we need to process your application includes:

• Read-only secure access to your company accounting and banking information via Open Banking so we can verify your company’s current financial position
• Business forecasts and budgets, including a 12 month cashflow model
• Tax clearance certificate
• Latest statutory financial statements

Get started with your application process right away.

What we do and why work with Financefair

Financefair (formerly InvoiceFair) was founded by a team of industry experts with the objective to offer ambitious businesses tailored working capital solutions to help them grow faster.

From the beginning, we’ve been supporting Irish businesses with invoice finance, revenue based financing and business lines of credit.

Here’s what you’ll get when you work with us:

Get a decision in 24 hours

Our technology and processes allow us to get you a response to your application within 24 hours.

Once you’re approved and onboarded, you’ll receive funding within 24 hours.

Once you’ve joined our platform we use data analytics to speed up decisioning for future funding. You also won’t have to keep re-applying for funding and you’ll spend less time on admin.  

Our team has years of financial services experience, and the breadth and diversity of this means we have a lot of industry knowledge between us. Our knowledge and track record overlaid with access to real-time data allows us to evaluate, approve and monitor risk effectively. 

Use a funding line that’s a better fit for your business

We can tailor funding solutions to your business when others can’t. This is possible because we:

• Base our decisions on real time accounting and banking data.
• Have a variety of financing options that other funders do not.
• Speak to you to understand your business.

Here’s what you need to know about how we support businesses: 

• Our variety of financing solutions makes it easier to find a good fit for you. We’ll work with you and your finances to understand whether a line of credit, revenue based financing or invoice financing would be best for you.
• We offer flexible funding limits: As your business grows, so can your funding limits. Plus, we understand working capital ebbs and flows. That’s why we don’t believe in putting rigid restrictions in place, and even if your projections and revenue decrease, we can adapt. The amount of funding you get will also decrease, but it won’t stop altogether. 
• You don’t have to have traditional debtors to work with us: Businesses with a subscription or recurring revenue model can sometimes struggle to find funding, but revenue based financing means we can still help you. 
• We don’t require a personal guarantee.
• Our pricing is transparent and there are no hidden fees or costs.

Access more capital with our unique business model

One of the unique selling propositions of our business model is that the funding comes from a variety of institutional investors. We work with multiple funders, which decreases the concentration risk of your funding. 

Banks usually limit the amount of funding they can provide, since your funding is mostly coming from that one bank.

Our operating model means you can access more money, as €1 million working capital could come from multiple funders.

For you as an SME, this means you can more easily request and access more funding.

How Zeus Scooters used revenue based financing to scale their business

Irish company Zeus provides their customers the world’s first 3-wheeled electric scooter with state-of-the-art technology for a reliable, safe, and smooth ride. Their mobile app operates across almost 40 cities in 6 countries and 2 continents and attracts over 100,000 customers per day.

For Zeus, the company’s speed of growth depended on how quickly they could secure funding for upfront infrastructural costs and more vehicles as adoption numbers rose in a new market.

The options were: 

1. Raise restrictive or expensive equity and potentially give up ownership of a portion of their business.
2. Access inflexible long-term debt.

Zeus needed a solution that matched their growth plans without restricting their cash flow runway, business operations, or having to give up equity. 

Revenue based financing was the ideal option, as it meant Zeus could leverage up to 20% of their future annual recurring revenue (ARR) to buy the scooters needed to expand into new territories.

Founder and CEO Damian Young said: “We operate in a relatively new, very fluid, and fast-changing category. It can be difficult for more traditional funders to see the opportunity and they can be reluctant to support new business models.”

Zeus worked with Financefair to access funding that was based on their revenue, rather than debt or equity financing. We structured their financing solution so they could repay based on the cyclical nature of their business, which included moratoriums and monthly repayments when it worked best for them.

“Their solution really did demonstrate a total understanding of our business and allowed us to utilize our most valuable assets – our customers – via our future cash flows (ARR) to increase stock levels, expand into new territories, and really grow our business.”

Read more in the full Zeus Scooters case study. 

Grow your business with revenue based finance and Financefair

In this article, we’ve taken an in-depth look at revenue based financing, including how it works, when it might make sense for a business to try RBF and how to get started with Financefair. 

If you’re looking for funding to grow your business, to better manage your working capital cycle or instead of giving equity away in return for investment, revenue based finance could work very well for you. If you’re ready to get started, reach out to us to talk about how our financing solutions could help support your business needs.

Leading Irish business finance provider Financefair has established a €150m fund dedicated to accelerating the development of social and affordable housing across Ireland.

This fund marks Financefair’s growing commitment to meet the needs of an underserved market of small and midsize scaling companies. Having advanced over €1.7bn of working capital funding to date, Financefair is making a significant and positive impact on the growth trajectory of many Irish and UK businesses across all sectors.

This Financefair Social and Affordable Housing Fund will be managed and administered by Financefair with funding provided via London-based investment firm LCM Partners.

This innovative new fund aims to finance the construction of up to 750 new homes, in communities throughout Ireland.

These homes, for turnkey sale to Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs), Local Authorities, and the Land Development Agency (LDA), will support Ireland’s social and affordable housing development needs.

Financefair will provide loans of up to 90% of the total development cost, or up to 75% of net development value, for experienced residential developers.

“Supporting the development of affordable homes is not just an investment in housing it’s an investment in the future of Irish communities,”

said Peter Brady, co-founder and chief revenue officer of Financefair.

“Our collaboration with LCM Partners opens doors not only to address the housing shortage but also to fuel local economic and community development. The fund provides essential support to experienced developers and will help drive efficient project completion by enabling early funding drawdown based on an agreement for sale to AHBs, Local Authorities, or the LDA.”

Declan Reid, managing director at LCM Partners said,

“Our partnership with Financefair reflects our commitment to sustainable development aligned to the need for social and affordable housing. We look forward to the progress of this fund which will contribute to the development of much needed quality housing for people, families and communities across Ireland.”

Experienced residential developers interested in applying to the fund can get more information at www.financefair.com

Financefair

Financefair (formerly InvoiceFair) was formed in 2015 by co-founders Helen Cahill and Peter Brady to provide working capital solutions to growing businesses in Ireland and the UK. The company has made a significant impact on the Irish and UK business funding landscape, having advanced over €1.7 billion to an underserved market of small and midsize SMEs who are scaling but cannot access funding from banks or traditional providers, due to their size or sector.

Key services include Line of Credit – a new pre-approved funding facility up to €250,000 that allows companies leverage on their outstanding trade receivables, enabling them to draw down funds on demand. This facility is an alternative to business overdrafts and short-term loans, as it gives business owners access to instant working capital.

Financefair also offer a Revenue Based Finance product which allows businesses to leverage their regular contracted and/or non-contracted revenue. By aligning funding to its forecasted and predictable revenue, businesses can get access to cashflow which often postpones the need for long term debt, or an equity raise to grow their business.

LCM Partners

LCM Partners is one of Europe’s leading alternatives investment management firms. LCM’s Strategic Origination and Lending Opportunities (SOLO) fund is a specialist private credit strategy focused on asset finance and real-estate development lending through lasting partnerships with specialist originators across Europe.

The first wave of the Fintech revolution was mostly characterised by the emergence of companies focused on infrastructural, payments and transactional systems improvements in both the consumer and B2B sector.

Global fintech ‘Unicorns’ like Paypal, Stripe, Square, Adyen and Klarna emerged, as the focus was on overhauling slow and archaic payment systems through faster, more effective technological and digital solutions.

This allowed for the rapid growth in eCommerce globally and the scaling of internet businesses at speed.

At the same time, traditional banking was also heavily disrupted by digital-only transactional banking brands like Revolut, Monzo and B2B focussed brands such as Starling in the UK.

This is only a very modest snapshot of the enormous number of new world banking providers that have emerged over the past decade or so. Though mostly focussed on the retail banking market, this impacted the B2B sector as well.

So, what exactly is Embedded Finance?

Embedded finance refers to the integration of financial services into non-financial platforms and applications. This integration allows businesses in various industries to offer financial products and services seamlessly to their customers, enhancing user experience and convenience. They don’t need to be a financial institution or hold a banking licence to offer these additional services to their customers.

A recent example of this has been the emergence of ‘BNPL’ (Buy Now Pay Later) in the consumer retail sector. Clearly a fairly straightforward integration of financial services, BNPL at its core is based on straightforward ‘static’ credit rating on smaller ticket items at massive volume levels, deployed with high interest rates that reduce exposure to potential default. It is as you might imagine, a lucrative business.

The concept of embedded finance enables fintech companies to extend their reach beyond traditional financial institutions and reach customers in new ways. It also enables non-financial companies to offer financial services without having to become licensed financial institutions themselves.

Several factors contribute to the potential of Embedded Finance

Convenience: By integrating financial services directly into their platforms, businesses can offer a one-stop-shop experience for customers.

Personalization: Embedded finance allows companies to leverage user data to provide tailored financial solutions that meet individual needs.

Wider Reach: Non-financial companies can use embedded finance to cater to underserved markets and expand their customer base.

Partnerships: Fintechs can collaborate with various industries, leading to innovative financial solutions and new revenue streams.

Competitive Advantage: Early adopters of embedded finance may gain a competitive edge by offering differentiated and holistic services.

But isn’t the Tech Bubble bursting?

Haven’t tech investments slowed dramatically I hear you ask?

Is there really another wave of innovation in Fintech on the way?

It is true to say the markets have certainly gone slightly soft on Tech Brands over the past 18 months. In many cases, investors have reduced their exposure in Tech brands due to lower levels of growth versus the overly optimistic forecasts being bandied about in the period during and immediately after the apex of the COVID-19 pandemic.

There is significant evidence that 2021 was in fact an outlier, the market was probably far too bullish.

In 2022, funding for private tech startups in Europe declined 22% to $83 billion from $106 billion in 2021. That pattern is set to accelerate as funding for Europe’s venture-backed startups is forecast to decline further to $51 billion in 2023.

(Source: Ryan Browne, CNBC, June 2023: “European Startups funding to drop a further 39% this year as tech rout continues”)

According to Browne, “Technology firms have come under huge strain over the last year and a half, with companies being pushed to prioritize profitability over growth at all costs”.

Therein lies the crux of the matter. For years, the metric of success has been demonstratable ability to scale, acquire customers, technological advancement. The cold hard reality of delivering profitability is what VC’s now demand from the Tech Sector.

There is no doubt that there is a ‘readjustment’ occurring in the VC markets. But the news it not all bleak for technology.

In its very recent report, ‘The state of European Tech First Look 2023’, Global Venture Capitalist firm Atomico commented that “However, when looking at the tech slowdown in H2’22, and comparing those numbers to the first half of this year, we see a degree of stabilisation”.

In addition, 2023 has seen the true emergence of a transformative technology that is seeping into every part of human life at a frightening speed – Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI). Who hasn’t heard about Chat GPT?

Atomico reports evidence of a change in sentiment:

“There are important structural green shoots appearing already: Europe is closing the early-stage funding gap with the US; Europe is increasing its investment in AI companies…”

This year to date, Generative AI companies have captured 35% of all funding going to European AI/ML companies, the highest share ever, having previously expanded from 1% in 2019 to 5% in 2022

Atomico are predicting an “AI supercycle to drive a golden age of innovation. European tech will have a key role, and the potential for huge value creation.”

Combining AI advancements with the fact that Fintech still retains the #1 position in terms of the sector that has attracted the most investment again in 2023, those fintechs that can show they are working towards profitability, while leveraging the power of Artificial Intelligence to effect real disruption are set to be the clear winners over the coming 18 months – 2 years.

So, how does Embedded Finance fit into this new paradigm?

As many of the legacy infrastructural issues have now been resolved through the rapid digitisation of the banking system, the focus switches to deploying additional value-added services that can benefit from this new, improved digital environment.

As mentioned earlier, BNPL in the Consumer sector is an example of one such value-added service delivered via Embedded Finance.

A number of factors have contributed to the growing theory that the latest fintech wave may revolve around Business Lending as the next major use of Embedded Finance.

Open Banking

The introduction of EU wide standards such as PSD2 in 2015 facilitated the emergence of what is known as ‘Open Banking’, where banks and other financial institutions, with their customers approval, can grant open access to bank account information by third party providers in real-time through the use of APIs (Application Programming Interfaces). Funders no longer need to review company performance based on outdated historic accounts.

Real time access to customer bank accounts allows for ‘right now’ analysis of how a company is performing, the digitization of the data also means more accurate trending conclusions can be made about likely future patterns of trade.

Cloud based Accounting

Like so many other areas, the adoption rate of companies to operating their accounting in the cloud has been rapid. Once the domain of the larger enterprises, the increasing trend of small and medium sized companies collaborating with e-commerce players and integration with other online applications, like automated bank feeds, electronic billing and payments, among others, has catapulted the adoption of accounting software.

According to a 2022 report by the Aberdeen Group, 70% of companies will have adopted to Cloud-based accounting software by the end of 2023.

This makes it possible for lenders to access real-time accounting information from customers. This allows funders to make much more informed funding decisions based on both previous performance as well as facilitating predictive modelling to dimensionalise the likely future performance of companies.

More importantly, these decisions can now be automated.

AI and dynamic credit scoring

Safe extension of credit relies on the quality of the credit engine. For years, a combination of static credit rating and historic accounts and banking information have been the basis on which business funding decisions are made (it still is in many more traditional banks and funders!).

Combining open banking and accounting information brings a new level of transparency and quality of data to arrive at credit decisions. Layering AI based dynamic credit scoring brings a whole new level of comfort to funders, way beyond the traditional static credit scoring systems of the past.

Innovative new world rating agencies like Italy’s ModeFinance are leading the way on AI based credit scoring. Combining financial expertise with technical knowhow, their flagship product, the Tigran Risk Platform, offers an AI powered platform to rapidly evaluate company information and its own proprietary credit scoring model – the MORE score. (Multi Objective Rating Evaluation).

Tigran’s modular structure overturns the traditional approach to credit risk management, combining all stages of the credit decision-making process into a single framework, from pre-feasibility and due diligence to final approval.

This end-to-end fully automated 360° evaluation of companies combining accounting, banking and AI features is the fuel that will power fintech lenders in an Embedded Finance world and gives them the confidence to provide their services via 3rd party non-financial service-based companies.

Successful mitigation of risk at scale using these sophisticated technologies that provide holistic credit profiles will make Embedded Finance the most obvious channel for Lending Fintechs to grow at supersonic levels.

Traditional Banking & Fintech integrations

The more traditional banking players, aware that perhaps they are not best placed to provide the speed of innovation that the modern consumer demands are instead looking to these newer, more innovative fintechs, to provide it for them.

Why? In many cases these fintechs are laser focussed on very specific elements of the banking and finance eco-system and ways of improving it. In some cases, they are operating outside the restrictions of a banking licence. Collaborations, partnerships or outright acquisitions of these fintechs are just some of the ways the more traditional financial services giants are staying relevant in a very changed financial world.

This is particularly true in the case of alternative forms of business funding, where the legal status of traditional banks as a lender in the first instance restricts them from offering some of the more innovative forms of funding like Revenue Based Finance or Invoice Finance.

The Market Potential of Embedded Finance

So, what is the market potential for Embedded Finance. According to Simon Torrence, Founder & CEO, Embedded Finance & Super App Strategies, Embedded Finance offers one of the most exciting new digital growth opportunities to incumbent financial institutions: an addressable market worth over $7 trillion, or roughly double the market value of the world’s top thirty banks today.

Given that B2B Sales dwarf B2C sales, it is clear that Embedded Finance for B2B is set to grow at an exponential rate. In research conducted by Dealroom, in Association with ABN AMRO, the two areas set to benefit the most from this are Business Lending and Insurance.

This convergence, driven by rapid improvements in Financial Technology has the potential to reshape the lending industry as we know it.

Looking ahead, the trajectory of lending fintech’s points toward ubiquitous embedded finance. As more and more fintechs recognise the potential of embedding their solutions within the digital ecosystem, the lending landscape will continue to evolve, offering greater accessibility, convenience, and efficiency.

Who to get Embed with?

Just as consumer focussed lending has focussed on the point of sale or checkout area of eCommerce, B2B lending in the digital ecosystem is starting to realise that the game has changed, there is a new playing field. Doesn’t it make far more sense to align with existing homogenous groupings and networks of businesses, rather than the traditional method of attempting to build a standalone, singular branded ‘front door’ and try to drive customers towards it?

That is the behaviour that you would expect from a traditional bank – build a digital brand to compete with the already existing banking system. This is a slow and expensive approach, not aligned with the pace of change we are seeing in the global B2B lending market. It also means a focus on the banking sector, and not where the focus should be – the businesses that badly need more agile, convenient and faster alternatives.

We are seeing that the future battle for B2B lending will take place in two distinct arenas: within existing Financial & Accounting Software and B2B Platforms.

(a) Financial & Accounting Software

Probably the most natural ‘fit’ for embedded finance is with financial & accounting cloud-based software providers like Xero, Sage & Quickbooks. Having a source of ‘ready to go’ funding that allows users to access any shortfalls in cashflow at short notice from the same platform they are managing cashflow makes lots of sense for all 3 parties – the finance provider, the accounting platform and the end user.

(b) Business-to-business (B2B) platforms

These are digital marketplaces or online platforms that facilitate transactions and interactions between businesses rather than between businesses and consumers. There are several main types of B2B platforms, each catering to specific business needs and industries. Here are some of the main types:

eCommerce and Procurement Platforms: These platforms serve as digital marketplaces where businesses can buy and sell products and services. They often include features like catalogue management, order processing, invoicing, and payment integration. Examples include Alibaba, Amazon Business and Shopify.

Supply Chain and Logistics Platforms: These platforms focus on optimizing supply chain processes, such as inventory management, order fulfilment, and logistics. They help businesses streamline their operations and improve efficiency. Examples include SAP Ariba, Oracle Procurement Cloud, and JDA Software.

Sourcing and RFx Platforms: These platforms are used to manage sourcing processes, request for proposal (RFP), request for quotation (RFQ), and other procurement-related activities. They help businesses find suppliers, evaluate bids, and negotiate contracts. Examples include Coupa, GEP SMART, and Jaggaer.

Collaborative Commerce Platforms: These platforms enable collaboration and communication between businesses throughout the supply chain. They often include features like document sharing, communication tools, and project management capabilities. Examples include TradeShift and Exostar.

Industry-Specific Marketplaces: Some B2B platforms cater to specific industries or niches, offering tailored solutions for the unique needs of those industries. Examples include ThomasNet for manufacturing and GlobalSpec for engineering.

Financial and Payment Platforms: These platforms focus on facilitating financial transactions between businesses, including electronic invoicing, payment processing, and trade financing. Examples include Tungsten Network and Basware.

Vertical Integration Platforms: These platforms offer end-to-end solutions for specific industries, connecting various stages of the value chain, from production to distribution. Examples include Fishbowl (for inventory management in manufacturing) and ShipMonk (for e-commerce fulfilment).

Market Intelligence and Analytics Platforms: These platforms provide businesses with market insights, data analytics, and business intelligence to help them make informed decisions. Examples include Dun & Bradstreet and Nielsen.

HR and Workforce Management Platforms: B2B platforms in this category focus on managing human resources, workforce scheduling, talent acquisition, and other HR-related functions. Examples include Workday and Kronos.

API and Integration Platforms: These platforms facilitate the integration of various software systems used by businesses, allowing them to streamline processes and share data seamlessly. Examples include MuleSoft and Zapier.

Proprietary Large Enterprise Platforms: A hybrid of many of the above also exists for larger National and Multi-National Companies, to manage their suppliers, manage RFI’s, manage project and make payments. In many cases, the ‘price’ of participation by the supplier with these blue-chip clients is having to contend with extended credit terms. This is where Embedded Finance can play a significant role – allowing suppliers to access funding earlier than the contracted terms, while allowing the debtor to maintain the credit terms they wish to implement.

Any platform that deals directly with cashflow management, project finance or invoice payment are clearly the most fertile. That would point towards the following platforms as the most appropriate for lending fintechs to focus on embedding their solutions with, as this would mean that the end user is managing the solution to a cashflow problem at source without having to leave the platform:

• Accountancy & Banking Software
• Procurement Platforms
• Proprietary Large Enterprise Platforms
• Supply Chain & Logistics Platforms

What’s in it for the end user?

This all makes a tonne of sense from the perspective of lenders and platforms, but what about the end user, those businesses who are in the market for funding? What’s in it for them?

Convenience

By being able to access tailored lending solutions within existing financial management systems, businesses can unlock their true potential, enhance cash flow management, and thrive in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

Speed

Naturally time is of the essence, cashflow shortages can arise suddenly and with little warning. The fact that this form of lending is embedded into an existing platform and connected to both their financial and banking software means funding decisions can be made far faster.

Early Payment

Lengthening credit terms are a feature of modern trading in business-to-business, especially with larger multi-national debtors. It can be part of the price of securing continuous contracts with these blue-chip debtors. Embedded receivables financing can remove this issue instantly. Platform Users can trade their outstanding invoices and secure up to 90% of the value of the invoice instantly. Have access to on-platform track record and performance means embedded finance providers can turn this form of finance around in as little as 24 hours!

Certainty of Funding

Having a continuous ‘360 view’ of how a business is performing, overlaid with AI capability and dynamic credit scoring allows funders to introduce innovative funding options like for example, a rolling ‘Line of Credit’ solution with confidence. Line of credit is a pre-approved ‘always on’ form of finance designed to replace overdrafts & business loans that businesses can draw down whenever they need it. Precisely the kind of innovation only made possible through financial technology.

Frictionless Finance

One of the bug bears of business financing is the level of friction that exists in the process. Long legal process, due diligence, anti-fraud, slow approval processes all make applying for finance something of a drudgery for business owners and a serious interruption and distraction from day-to-day operations, where their focus should be. Access to continuous real-time data on the businesses performance, plus an existing profile of the legal entity means most of these frictions are removed.

Which Lending Fintechs will lead this latest wave?

The sheer scale of the B2B lending market means it is inevitable that digital disruption in the form of Embedded Finance will in fact be the next wave in the Fintech Revolution.

But which Lending Fintechs are best placed to win? I believe these are the critical characteristics required to truly emerge as a market leader in this new world order:

Multi-source, AI driven credit profiling

Clearly automation is the key to scaling any business and B2B funding in an era of Embedded Finance is no different. Creating a credit engine focussed on building a more robust 360 profile of companies and allowing for a quantum leap increase in the volume of credit reviews that can be safely processed is the key characteristic, but this is no mean feat.

This vastly enhanced data rich profile requires the ingestion of data from multiple sources into a common view so that the credit decision making process – and advancing of funds to customers – could be accelerated, without compromising the safety of funders funds and avoiding potential credit events.

A powerful and secure Technology base

Existing – and successful – accounting & banking software and B2B platform providers are not going to work with any finance partner who does not have best in class, API driven technology that adheres to the highest standards in terms of security and data protection. Not so much a differentiator but a basic ‘ticket to the game’.

Seamless & painless integration

Potential partners while they will see the obvious benefits of embedded finance, will not want to be subjected to significant levels of disruption to their core operations. Embedded Finance Lenders will need to demonstrate that they can provide a seamless, pain-free integration.

Financial Expertise

There is an argument that Embedded Finance is a technology opportunity. While that is certainly part of the story, a strong background in the ‘Fin’ aspect of Fintech is also vital. Experience in understanding risk, analytical prowess in evaluating multiple sources of data that lead to making good credit decisions are still necessary, if only to continually improve the data driven engines required to drive the sector forward.

Using the parlance of venture capital and scaling models, will Embedded Finance solve a real life problem?

The short answer is yes.

Lending fintechs are solving cashflow or working capital issues, typically caused by things like extended debtor payment terms, large one-off payments like an insurance bill or a Revenue payment; or unexpected payments which can be as a result of growth for example, having to fund a newly won contract.

Making funding available to them integrated into platforms and software they already use has the potential to revolutionise how businesses manage their cashflow in the not-too-distant future!

The right funding at the right time… in the right place

At Financefair, we believe that there is a systemic failure in traditional funding. Businesses struggle to find unrestrictive funding to accelerate their growth. Our goal is to give growing businesses ‘the freedom to fund their own future’, giving them back control of their financial destiny. We do this by removing friction from the funding process, reduce restrictions and create a faster, fairer and more convenient and unfragmented funding journey.

By making our range of innovative funding solutions like Line of Credit and Revenue Based Finance, available to be embedded in 3rd Party Partner Platforms, we are giving ambitious and growing businesses ‘the right funding at the right time and, more importantly, in the right place’.

To find out more about Embedded Finance with Financefair, go to our dedicated Partnerships page here or contact our team at partnerships@financefair.com

This article was written by

David Guilfoyle

Head of Trading & Partnerships

Financefair

Alternative Business-to-Business Finance Provider InvoiceFair has announced that it has changed its name to Financefair.

Financefair (formerly InvoiceFair) has made a significant impact on the Irish & UK business financing market since its launch in 2015, advancing over €1.5billion in funding to growing companies across almost 8,000 advances in that time.

The change is a reflection of the expanding breath of solutions offered by the company.

Speaking at the announcement today, Co-Founder & CEO Helen Cahill, a finalist in last year’s EY Entrepreneur of the Year Awards said, “When we started in 2015 it was in the wake of a systemic banking failure that led directly to growing UK & Irish companies being starved of the funding they needed to grow. We created a simple but innovative Invoice Trading platform where companies could leverage the value of outstanding invoices to release immediate working capital.”

Over time, InvoiceFair began to expand the range of solutions it offered beyond simply trading individual invoices, mainly as a result of being more imaginative in attempting to solve unique issues that specific clients were facing.

This year, with 8 years of trading under our belt, we felt it was time to take another look at their value proposition.

According to Cahill, “Our name was made up of two words, one with a distinct meaning (‘Invoice’) which we felt at best mis-represented what we were about and at worst, probably had people thinking we were a basic Invoice Discounter. While Invoice Discounting is one of our solutions and we are very proud to provide a very distinctive and differentiated version of it to the market, we were about so much more.

We felt that we had outgrown the name. Although, this was about more than just a name change, we wanted an identity that better reflected our value proposition. Our vision is to be a powerful catalyst in helping businesses globally to fund their own future. A fundamental part of this is that we provide finance that gives ambitious companies the fairest chance of achieving their growth ambitions.”

And that’s where the name Financefair originates from.

An ever expanding range of innovative solutions

Co-Founder and Chief Revenue Officer Peter Brady explains how the needs of customers has been the driving force behind the more extensive range of solutions that Financefair now offers, “As we met more and more dynamic and forward-thinking business owners, we started to understand the range of unique circumstances their businesses were facing that simply weren’t being supported by the traditional funders like the pillar banks. So, we felt a sense of duty to these companies to try and come up with new ways of solving these cashflow issues.”

The 4 main solutions now on offer are:

Line of Credit

A pre-approved Line of Credit for up to €250,000 that gives you access to instant working capital you can draw down whenever you need it.

Read more

Selective Invoice Finance

Turn individual or multiple invoices into instant cashflow for your business. Optimise your cashflow and upload as many invoices as you want, when you want, with no personal guarantees required.

Read more

Invoice Discounting

Raise more working capital by converting your entire Debtor Book into upfront growth capital. Because we don’t apply debtor or geographic limits, you can access more funding than other funders to manage your cashflow better.

Read more

Revenue Based Finance

Convert up to 20% of your future Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) into upfront growth capital. As your ARR grows, so does the amount of funding you can access.

Read more

Our recently launched Line of Credit is a typical Financefair story, once again leading with a market first.

Widely available in some International markets most noticeably the USA, this is a market first in Ireland for Financefair.

Line of Credit is pretty much exactly as its name suggests – a pre-approved ‘always on’ facility companies can draw down whenever they need it. Financefair position it as a new alternative to business overdrafts and short-term loans, as it gives business owners access to instant working capital, or as we like to call it, ‘funding at your fingertips’.

Further launch imminent

Financefair has also announced the  launch of an entirely new, specialist solution to fund Social & Affordable Housing in Ireland. The genesis of the social & affordable housing finance solution comes from the insight that a key issue for small and medium sized housing developers in the €2-€15m development finance bracket is having ability to plan and commence their projects efficiently, supported by funding that helps them get building faster.

Right now, the majority of finance available to developers like this is only available when the sale contract to an Approved Housing Body, a Local Authority or the Land Development Agency (LDA) has been executed.

Peter Brady explains this in more detail, “With our solution, the developer can get going on site 8-16 weeks sooner than with other funders. This, along with other features of our product like fixed finance cost, up to 90% Loan to Cost, helps developers optimise return on their equity and lock down more of the costs of their project in advance.

By starting sooner, fixing finance costs and getting finished more efficiently, developers give themselves the best chance of delivering their project efficiently, and moving on to their next project.”

Financefair have already secured an initial funding line of €150m which, when utilised, will support the development of 600 additional badly needed social & affordable homes for families across Ireland, making an immediate impact on the hottest topic in Irish society right now.

So, a new name but very much the same old story of innovation for Financefair, it’s ‘fair’ to say!

InvoiceFair becomes the first business lender in Ireland to offer Line of Credit, meeting the growing demand for faster, flexible business finance solutions.

InvoiceFair has announced the launch of Line of Credit – a whole new type of ‘On Demand’ funding for businesses in Ireland. Line of Credit is an automated, pre-approved working capital solution, based on advancing up to 20% of your annual turnover, with a limit of €250,000.

According to CEO Helen Cahill, Line of Credit is a well-timed innovation.

“Line of Credit is new to Ireland but has been available in other markets like the USA for some time. We feel that Line of Credit answers a very specific short term funding requirement for businesses in Ireland – an instantly accessible, pre-approved funding line for those unexpected cashflow demands that can arise without much notice. Virtually every funding option open to businesses takes so long to arrange that it causes businesses to lose out on major opportunities to grow quicker.”

Cahill explains further:

“Our mission is to give companies control of their own growth through access to innovative funding solutions at speed. Knowing they can draw down up to €250,000 instantly gives companies the confidence to invest in themselves, fund new business orders or capitalise on business opportunities”.

How does it work?

Being able to automate the entire application and onboarding process is what allows us to provide this unique solution. It means that we can make faster credit decisions and speed up how quickly businesses can get funded. Rather than the weeks or months it takes to secure traditional funding, Line of Credit funding can be in a customers bank account inside a single working week.

Once funding has been approved and paid to your nominated bank account, you have the flexibility to repay and redraw during the facility term, thereby putting you in control of your cashflow and the cost of funds. Uniquely, your bank account does not need to be in credit in order to draw down funds.

Each facility is provided for a 12-month period, at which stage the balance outstanding is repaid over a further 3-month period, unless the facility is renewed for a further 12-month period.

Pricing is transparent and consists of a monthly facility fee and interest payable on the balance outstanding which is collected at the end of the month via direct debit from your nominated bank account.

Our limits are also flexible, so if your business continues to grow during the period of the facility you can apply for an increased limit. It’s the ultimate in fast, flexible funding that’s always there when you need it – funding at your fingertips.

Funding in 6 Easy Steps

There are 6 easy steps to Line of Credit funding:

Step 1

Complete an online application form

Step 2

Connect your Online Banking & Accounting Software (read-only access)

Step 3

Within 24 hours, you’ll receive an indicative offer

Step 4

If you accept the offer, our team will onboard you onto the platform

Step 5

Once credit approved, we issue a facility letter & security documentation

Step 6

When your facility is in place, funds will be transferred within 24 hours

Who is eligible?

The eligibility criteria is pretty straightforward. Your business is eligible if it:

• Is based & operating in the Republic of Ireland
• Is trading for at least 12 months
• Has an annual turnover of €250,000+
• Has a current Tax Clearance Certificate
• Can provide Open Banking & Accounting Software connectivity
• Has an unencumbered Debtor Book
• Can provide security on your Debtor Book and Bank Account

Based on the principle of Mutual Trust

Line of Credit is a highly innovative funding solution, that is based on a degree of mutual trust. You trust us with the financial & banking information you share with us. We trust you to manage debtor collections and cashflow yourself.

Unlike other funders, we don’t ask for Personal Guarantees as we base our funding decisions on the quality of the information you supply to us. We don’t interfere with your collection process or ask you to alert your customers about a change in bank account details, so it is a very discreet solution.

In return, all we ask for you to sign a short form debenture via DocuSign, giving us security over your Debtor Book and the Bank Accounts into which debtor receipts are collected.

This has absolutely no material impact on your business but gives us the comfort we need to provide you with access to an innovative ‘always-on’ source of funding to grow your business.

What are the benefits?

Fast Online process: Seamless and quick fully automated process.

Flexible: You decide how much of the facility to draw down and when. Also, you can draw down funds even if your account is not in credit.

Control: You control the cost of funds by deciding the drawdown amounts and for how long you need them.

Discreet: Repayments are via Direct Debit, there is no cntact with your customers and no change of bank account required

No Personal Guarantees: Unlike with other providers, you’re not personally liable

Peace of mind: You get certainty of funding for 12-month terms

Fast Funding: Once in place, drawdowns transferred within 24 hours

Multi-Currency: More than 20 different currencies

Like to find out more?

If you think Line of Credit is something that your business could benefit from, there are a number of things you can do:

Go to the Line of Credit page here

Call our team now on +35315252486

Email us at busdev@invoicefair.com

Arrange a meeting with one of our team here

Apply for Line of Credit Funding

Think you’ve heard enough and are ready to make an application? Click here to start the application process, it takes less than 5 minutes to apply.

Employing over 250,000 people, the manufacturing industry accounts for 32% of Ireland’s GDP – making it one of the most critical sectors of the Irish economy.

The industry’s flagship event is the National Manufacturing Summit. Held in the RDS on May 23rd – 24th,  InvoiceFair Head of Sales Garry Holligan delivered a thought provoking presentation to a highly engaged audience.

Garry’s topic was “Funding Manufacturing Projects in a Turbulent World”. One of Ireland’s most prestigious Conference & Exhibitions, the Summit attracts upwards of 4,000 delegates across the 2 days each year.

The topic Garry spoke about was “Funding Construction Projects in a Turbulent World“.

There has been a ‘softening’ of interest in funding Manufacturing Projects from more traditional funders over the past couple of years. This is due to a number of factors:

• Global events like COVID-19 and the Ukranian War
• Increased supply costs
• Increased transportation costs
• Supply scarcity
• Extending credit terms
• Increasing Variation Costs
• Increasing Interest Rates

All of these have impacted on the overall profitability of manufacturing projects, meaning that manufacturers need to get familiar with some key financial tools that everyone involved in managing complex manufacturing projects should use in order to manage their projects effectively and, more importantly, profitably.

While the topic may seem very elevated, Garry brought the audience through some basic financial principles and explained:

If you don’t have a handle on some basic financial principles, a dynamic financial strategy plus a reliable source of funding, even the most successful companies are at risk of failure.

He went on to explain 2 specific financial tools that are key to effectively project management today.

The Cash Conversion Cycle

The CCC is a formula that measures the amount of time it takes to:

1. Purchase supplies

2. Turn those supplies into a completed project

3. Collect payment from your customer for that project

The CCC formula determines how efficient a company is at managing its working capital.

Companies that have learned to reduce their Cash Conversion Cycle have more cash on hand and can therefore take on more projects and grow their businesses faster.

Establishing a precise CCC can be quite complex; However, to give the audience a simple guide of how you compare globally, Garry explained that InvoiceFair created this simple calculator and encouraged everyone to do 2 calculations – using the average times from before Covid-19 and now, to see what direction you are trending in.

Calculate your CCC and see how you compare

Average No. of days to get your product from order to delivered to customer

Average No. of days credit your customer takes to pay you

Average No. of days credit your suppliers extend to you

Calculate

0

You have a CCC of X days and rank in the Worst Average Best category

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Peak Funding Requirement

Across the life of any manufacturing project, the requirement to fund things like supplier costs, labour, raw materials and expenses ebbs and flows, before the project is completed and fully paid for.

The point at which the highest amount of cash is required and the length of time it is required for during the life of a given project is known as the Peak Funding Requirement.

Garry brought everyone through an example based on real life data:

In this example, we see that the value of a ‘like for like’ the project has increased by 10%. So this company has actually managed to get an increased commitment from their customer. However, a number of things have changed. Raw materials have increased by over 25%, overheads and salaries by 10% (modest – in reality probably a lot higher given energy cost increase).

The impact of this on gross margin is significant – the same project even with an increase in budget is now making €50,000 less, which has a dramatic effect not only on profitability but also on cashflow. They are now having to finance a significant increase in peak funding at a lower gross margin.

If we say – again conservatively – that it is now taking 90 days to get materials landed and there is evidence that the customer is now stretching payment terms from 30 to 45 days; this means that this company now has a peak funding requirement of 385,000 for 130 days. They need to find funding for an extra 100,000 for an additional 39 days!

So how can we help?

Armed with this information, you are in a much better position to understand what your Peak Funding Requirement on any given project is and for how long you will need working capital finance.

Because of the high costs of traditional funding, the Manufacturing industry has been actively searching for alternative approaches. Today, there are three distinct alternatives with a few flavour varieties:

1. Early Payment Discounts
2. Invoice Finance
3. Supplier Finance

Banks and Traditional Funders can put manufacturing-related businesses into the risky-borrower bucket – even more so in current times. Alternative Funders like InvoiceFair offer a more dynamic method of financing manufacturing projects.

Why?

• Specialists in Working Capital analysis and solutions
• Experienced team of Financial Services Professionals
• Secure lines of Funding
• Speed (24 hours decisioning, 48 hours onboarding and 24 hours to receive funds)
• Data Analytics
• Sectoral expertise
• Track record of supporting growing business
• Discreet

InvoiceFair provide a range of innovative funding solutions for businesses that can release cash at every stage in the credit cycle. So you can get access to funding when you need it most – during the project and not after it is completed! We do not require personal guarantees from Directors, we don’t implement debtor or geographic concentration limits and funds are released within 24 hours once approved.

Want to learn more about InvoiceFair and how our range of alternative finance solutions could give your business the freedom to fund your own future? Contact us here.

Like a copy of the full presentation?

The Gala Awards Night for this year’s Irish Accountancy Awards took place last Thursday 25th June, and as sponsors,  InvoiceFair were there in numbers to celebrate the crème de la crème of the Irish Accountancy Profession. More than 450 people from all parts of the accountancy community were there to recognise and reward excellence in the Accountancy profession in Ireland.

The Awards took place at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Santry, Dublin in what was a very welcome return to face-to-face networking and socialising among Accountancy Professionals from both industry & practice.

Setting the scene. Final preparations in advance of the start of the Irish Accountancy Awards 2023 in the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Santry, Co. Dublin

This year’s awards were presented by award winning Comedian, Author and TV Presenter Colm O’Regan. Best known for him multi-award winning RTE Radio 1 show, “Colm O’Regan Wants a word”;  Colm is a seasoned after dinner speaker and event MC and he proved to be a big hit with the audience.

Colm O’Regan opening the Irish Accountancy Awards 2023

So who were the winners on the night?

There are a wide range of categories at the Irish Accountancy Awards, in both the industry and practice sectors. The majority of the awards are adjudicated by a select panel of judges and all of the results are listed below. However, there are a couple of ‘special merit’ awards that are made each year and among those is a special award for ‘Outstanding Contribution to Accountancy’. This year’s recipient was Professor Patricia Barker, Dip. Couns., MPhil, PhD, FCA.

So extraordinary has been Patricia’s career that in his introduction to her Award, Barry Dempsey, Chief Executive of Chartered Accountants Ireland remarked “You’re probably going to think that I’ve cut and pasted extracts from a range of resumes and joined them together”. He went on to outline some of the remarkable achievements that Patricia has made over her career.

Following Barry’s powerful introduction, Patricia addressed the audience with a deeply insightful and inspiring acceptance speech, which was received with a rapturous standing ovation.

Both speeches are very much worth watching!

Barry Dempsey presents Professor Patricia Barker with her award for Outstanding Contribution to Accountancy

As Sponsors, InvoiceFair presented 2 Awards on the night.

CEO Helen Cahill presented the award for Finance Director of the Year to Chris McCarthy of Uisce Éireann. Chris was one of 2 finalists, narrowly beating Gerard Cleary of Glenisk to the award this year.

Meanwhile CRO Peter Brady presented Azets Ireland with the Award for Tax Team of the Year, who beat off stiff competition from Charles P. Crowley & Co., RSM Ireland and Walsh O’Brien Harnett.

Full list of Winners

Outstanding Contribution to Accountancy

Professor Patricia Barker, Dip. Couns., MPhil, PhD, FCA

Practice of the Year

RSM Ireland

Global Achievement in Accountancy

Geraldine Ruane

Large Practice of the Year

RSM Ireland

Medium Practice of the Year

Whelan Dowling & Associates

Small Practice of the Year

Moran McNamara

Online Practice of the Year

FinTech Pro

Accountant of the Year

Sinead Doherty – Fenero

Advisory Team of the Year – SME Finance

Cantwell Corporate Finance

Advisory Team of the Year

FPM

Finance Director of the Year

Chris McCarthy – Uisce Éireann

Finance Team of the Year

Lidl Ireland GmbH/Lidl Northern Ireland

CSR Initiative of the Year

EY Ireland

Tax Team of the Year

Azets Ireland

Employer of the Year

FPM

Payroll Team of the Year

Paycheck Plus

Bookkeeping Team of the Year

Fitzgerald Power

Client Service Award

Saffery Champness Ireland

Excellence in Education & Training

PAT Business School

Part Qualified Accountant of the Year

Ross Phillips – EY Ireland

Best use of Technology in Accountancy & Finance

Fenero

Graduate Training Programme of the Year

Deloitte Ireland

Welcome sign

Helen Cahill being interviewed for the Awards video

Best ad in the awards programme?

The food!

Room almost ready!

Sponsor Screens

Helen Cahill & Tony Connelly, Accounts IQ

Tony Connelly & Garry Holligan

David Guilfoyle, Tim Maguire & Damian Heffernan, InvoiceFair with Jude Condell from CPA

Garry Holligan, Tim Maguire and Damian Heffernan at the InvoiceFair table

InvoiceFair is delighted to confirm its Gold Sponsorship of the Irish Accountancy Awards 2023.

Now in its 8th year, the Irish Accountancy Awards were created to recognise and reward excellence in the Accountancy profession in Ireland. The Awards cover both industry & practice and span a wide variety of categories.

According to InvoiceFair CEO Helen Cahill,

“Working with some of the most innovative and dynamic Financial Professionals in Ireland on a daily basis, we’re delighted to play our part in recognising some of the excellent work being done in the sector. We feel it is very important to step back from pressures of day-to-day work and take time out to reward those for their continued commitment to improvement of standards.”

The Awards culminate in a Gala Awards night at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Santry, Co. Dublin on the 25th of May 2023.

Categories & Finalists

Accountant of the Year

Sinead Doherty – Fenero
Elaine Jackson Gilsenan  – OmniPro
John Hannaway – HCA Chartered Accountants

Advisory Team of the Year

Azets Ireland
Cantwell Corporate Finance
Charles P. Crowley & Co.
Fitzgerald Power
FPM
JPA Brenson Lawlor
Walsh O’Brien Harnett
Saffery Champness Ireland

Advisory Team of the Year – SME Finance

Cantwell Corporate Finance
FinTech PRO
ORM Accountants Limited
Paul O’Donovan & Associates

Best use of Technology in Accountancy & Finance

Fenero
McGowan Accountancy Services
OfficePal
RSM Ireland

Bookkeeping Team of the Year

Burdy
Fitzgerald Power
OfficePal

Client Service Award

CavanaghKelly
KDA Doyle Kelly Accountants
O’Farrell & Co. Chartered Accountants and Statutory Auditors
Saffery Champness Ireland

CSR Initiative of the Year

Deloitte Ireland
EY Ireland
Fitzgerald & Partners Accountants & SME Specialists
O’Donovan Keyes & Barrett
University of Galway Tax Clinic

Employer of the Year

DBASS
FPM
KDA Doyle Kelly Accountants
Quintas
Walsh O’Brien Harnett

Excellence in Education & Training

EY Ireland
Griffith Professional Accountancy
Masters in Science in Accounting and Finance Management – Graduate Business School Griffith College
Online Training for Accountancy Students – AccountancySchool.ie
PAT Business School
TUS Midlands

Finance Director of the Year

Gerard Cleary – Glenisk
Chris McCarthy – Uisce Éireann

Finance Team of the Year

BT
Lidl Ireland GmbH/Lidl Northern Ireland
OfficePal
Uisce Éireann

Graduate Training Programme of the Year

Deloitte Ireland
EY Ireland
FMC Agro Ireland
Grant Thornton Ireland Graduate Programme
Ifac
Walsh O’Brien Harnett

Large Practice of the Year

FPM
Ifac
JPA Brenson Lawlor
RSM Ireland
Azets Ireland

Medium Practice of the Year

Accounting Anytime
Charles P. Crowley & Co.
HCA Chartered Accountants
KDA Doyle Kelly Accountants
O’Donovan Keyes & Barrett (ODKB)
Quintas
Whelan Dowling & Associates
Woods and Partners
Walsh O’Brien Harnett

Online Practice of the Year

Around Finance
OfficePal
Rory Williams Chartered Accountants
Shelbourne Accountants
FinTech PRO

Part Qualified Accountant of the Year

Karolina Mazurek – DesignPro Automation
Ross Phillips – EY Ireland
Amy Roantree – EY Ireland

Payroll Team of the Year

HSOC Chartered Accountants
O’Reilly Group
Paul O’Donovan & Associates
Paycheck Plus

Small Practice of the Year

FinTech PRO
Intax
L&D Focus Partners
McGowan Accountancy Services
Moran McNamara
O’Farrell & Co
OfficePal
Rory Williams Chartered Accountants

Tax Team of the Year

Charles P. Crowley & Co.
RSM Ireland
Walsh O’Brien Harnett
Azets Ireland

Judges

The full line up of judges has also been announced

John Gaynor (Judging Co-ordinator) Senior Lecturer, ATU

Peter Brophy, Managing Director, Floirin Corporate Finance

Joseph Coughlan, Professor of Accounting & Head of School of Business, Maynooth University

Evelyn Cregan, Company Secretary, The Institute of Bankers in Ireland (trading as IOB)

Pauline Haughey, Project Manager, Queen’s University Belfast

Fran Kehoe, Associate Director, KPMG

Damien Malone, Managing Partner, Malone & Co.

Fiona Malone, Head of School Accounting, Economics & Finance, Technological University Dublin

Aisling McDevitt, Director, PGIM Ireland

Dr. Caroline McGroary, Chartered Accountant, Fulbright Scholar and Research Fellow at Boston College, Lecturer in Accounting, DCU

Christine Nagle, Head of Discipline of Accounting, TU Dublin

Angela O’Leary, Managing Partner, AG Associates Accountants

Sean O’Leary, Assistant Professor in Accountancy, University College Dublin

Denis O’Sullivan, Group Financial & Treasury Controller, Keywords Studios PLC

Ronnie Patton, Deputy President, ACCA

Sean Quigley, Self Employed

Olivia Smith, Freelance Finance Business Partner

For more details on the Awards, go to www.accountancyawards.ie