From £20k a Month to £2 Million a Month: Shoreditch Internet-Finance Startup MarketInvoice Reports 100 Times Growth in First Year of Trading

LONDON, March 15, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

MarketInvoice, the online marketplace for invoices, announced today that invoice trading volume on its market-based platform increased 10,000% in their first year of trading, with volume going from £20,000 in their first month of trading in February 2011, to £2,000,000 by the end of February 2012.

This one hundred-fold growth indicates that small businesses across the UK are embracing the ease of MarketInvoice's revolutionary "ebay for invoices" and are recognising the MarketInvoice model as a reliable and effective method of managing cash flow.

Companies small and large - and in a wide range of industries - are using MarketInvoice as a flexible, affordable source of selective invoice finance, and more are joining every day - and are getting an average of between 98 and 99 pence in the pound for their invoices, with auctions having a 100% success rate. Most auctions close within 24 hours, with sellers receiving their funds the next business day.

Buyers, both institutional investors and high-net worth individuals, have flocked to the platform: since the first auction launched in February 2011, over 8 million pounds worth of funding has been channelled from these investors to small and midsize businesses, providing a vital support to enable fast growing UK SMEs to keep expanding. Industries who have found the online exchange particularly useful include manufacturing, construction, professional services, business support, media and technology - all of these industries have found the unique method of invoice discounting useful.

"MarketInvoice has completely changed the way I finance my company - when you can decrease the amount of time invoices are outstanding from 60 days to five, it can be totally game changing for a growing business like ours. I'm happy to say my business is in the process of hiring new employees, something we wouldn't have been able to do without affordable capital.

• Aneesh Varma, Co-Founder of FabriQate (a mobile app development studio)

"The incredible growth of MarketInvoice shows that there is tremendous appetite among small and midsize businesses for access to affordable capital, and that appetite will certainly grow in 2012, as the economy improves and more businesses recognize the benefits of easy online invoice financing. We are anticipating another record-breaking year in 2012 - we had our first million pound day on March the 8^th so from here the sky's the limit."

• Anil Stocker, Founder, MarketInvoice

About MarketInvoice

Marketinvoice is the UK's first online trading marketplace allowing businesses to selectively sell the invoices of large business customers to raise flexible working capital. Businesses register on MarketInvoice, and then auction invoices due to be paid in 30, 60, 90 days, receiving cash in advance from global institutional investors who compete to provide funding at the lowest cost. Since 2011, over £8 million has been channelled to nearly 100 businesses. It is a new model of invoice finance.

Cash funding for SMEs is provided through competitive auction from a wide range of institutional buyers (investment funds, asset managers, family offices, high net worth individuals). MarketInvoice serves to bring new capital into this market by creating a standardised and secure trading environment. It encourages those SMEs that do not wish to enter into traditional factoring due to cost, contractual, and reputational concerns, to selectively use the competitive marketplace at times when short-term funding is desired or required. Importantly, using Marketinvoice is completely confidential to a business' end customer and no notification is necessary. Companies maintain control of their invoice collection procedures and customer relationships.

The main advantages of using MarketInvoice can be summarised as follows:

• Immediate funding (money arrives within 48 hours)
• Complete confidentiality (non-disclosure to end customers, you preserve your valuable client relationships)
• Complete flexibility (companies only raise finance against invoices they choose to sell, no requirement to assign whole debtor book)
• No monthly minimum service fees, use the platform when you want, all fees are transactional
• Price transparency
• Extended scope (our buyer community is open to buy invoices not typically accepted by many factors and discounters)
• Personal guarantees are not required, all asset debentures are not required
• For young companies, no need to give up valuable equity to fund working capital

For more information, please contact:
Willard Foxton, Head of Comms, MarketInvoice
[email protected]  / M: +44(0)7796-886673 / T:  +44(0)207-0787621

SOURCE MarketInvoice Ltd