Peer-to-peer business lender MarketInvoice has secured an additional £5m investment from the government backed British Business Bank.
The deal, which lasts until 2018, sees the British Business Bank take its total investment in MarketInvoice’s platform to £10m.
The news of the investment comes at the same time as MarketInvoice confirmed that it had provided £500m in funding for high-growth UK businesses since its launch in 2011.
Anil Stocker, CEO and co-founder of MarketInvoice, said: “Reaching half a billion pounds of funding for small business is a great achievement for MarketInvoice.
“This is just the beginning though; we know that financial services is changing and that businesses like ours are driving that change.
“We’re bringing new ideas and products to an industry which has been devoid of innovation for decades. Our intention is to help hundreds of thousands of UK business accelerate their growth.
“The additional commitment from British Business Bank is further proof of our ability to quickly and transparently provide much-needed short-term cashflow finance to high growth businesses, we’re grateful for their support of our mission.”
The funding milestone has been achieved across over 8,000 individual loans to high growth businesses across the UK.
The average loan size is £60k and all invoices listed for sale on MarketInvoice have been funded in full, the vast majority within seconds of being listed.
Peter Wilson, CEO of British Business Bank Investments, added: “Our initial investment of £5 million in 2013 has since enabled over £50m of invoice finance to be supported through MarketInvoice’s platform.
“We work to encourage greater choice and diversity in small business finance markets and I am pleased that we are able to commit a further £5m, helping even more small and medium sized British businesses secure the vital short-term working capital finance that they need to grow, with the resultant positive effect on the wider UK economy.”
MarketInvoice has recently completed a $10m (£6m) Series A funding round and will soon launch an expanded product set, including allowing businesses to access funds against licences, contracts, and subscriptions, as well as supplier finance where businesses can get finance to pay suppliers to complete large projects.