Fintech firm secures £6.25m investment for lending to SMEs

CLOUD-based invoice finance specialist for SMEs DueCourse has secured £6.25m of investment in its latest round of funding – the largest investment seen outside London for a fintech company.

The round includes £1.25m of equity and £5m of debt for lending to UK businesses.

New backers include the founders and investors of Zoopla, LoveFilm, TransferWise and LinkedIn.

The new round of angel investment puts DueCourse in a strong position within the SME business lending market in the UK, which lent an estimated £53bn to small businesses in 2014.

Launched in 2015, Manchester-based DueCourse’s software technology unlocks the cash tied up in unpaid invoices, giving SMEs control over their cash flow and empowering them to meet their ambitions.

The business is planning to raise a further Series A round of £10m to £15m in funding over the next 10 months to expand its service around the world.

Paul Haydock, chief executive and co-founder of DueCourse, said: “We started DueCourse because we realised traditional methods of finance are completely out of sync with what today’s SMEs need.

“We saw the opportunity for a company to disrupt the market and help SMEs get access to the cash they need to fuel their business, in real time.

“We want to be seen as a new kind of cash flow utility – once a business has linked their accounting package for free, DueCourse is simply there in the background for them to access the money in their unpaid invoices whenever they need it.”