London-based Liberis, a leading global embedded business finance platform provides fast and flexible SME financing solutions based on a company’s revenues. Since its debut in 2017, Liberis has provided more than 16,000 SMEs all over the world with over £500M funding.
Eyes to launch new products
Now, Liberis announced that it secured £70M funding from long-term partners – British Business Investments, BCI Europe and Paragon Bank and financing and venture debt from a new partner – Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). With this, the overall investment raised by the company totals to £200M including £50M equity funding.
The company stated that it will use the investment to fuel its growth, launch new products, enter into new markets and provide additional customer financing solutions.
Folake Shasanya, Head of EMEA Warehouse Financing, SVB said: “We are pleased to become a new funding partner to Liberis and have been impressed with their ability to embed financing solutions across technology platforms, payments providers and more. At SVB, supporting innovation is in our DNA and we are delighted to provide this global growth opportunity to Liberis through our Warehouse and Venture Debt products.
Judith Hartley, CEO, British Business Investments said “Our mission is to increase the overall supply and diversity of finance for smaller businesses across the UK. By supporting innovative lenders such as Liberis, we can continue to help smaller businesses access the finance they need to achieve their growth ambitions.”
Jamie Pickering, Director, Structured Lending, Paragon Bank said: “We are proud to support and partner with Liberis to support its technology and financing solutions that present real-world value for SMEs and marketplaces. The ability to rapidly access funds is key for SME survival in uncertain times and effective delivery of embedded finance is a much-needed piece of the puzzle.”
Helps SMEs during uncertain times
Liberis has witnessed a 40% year-on-year growth in the past two years. Its global network of partners consists of software providers, acquirers, and marketplaces such as Wordplay from FIS and Pa. These partners integrate with Liberis to provide personalised and pre-approved revenue-based financing of up to £300,000 to up to 1 million SMEs. The payments are linked to a company’s transaction and lets them pay for the funds comfortably with their income.
During the COVID-19 crisis-related survey conducted with 200 Liberis customers, half of them stated that they were forced to shut down. Also, 37% of them were not concerned about the losing customers and revenue as the major issue they faced is cash flow. Moreover, 36% said that it was tougher to get approved funding from traditional lenders including banks. As a result, Liberis launched a new CIVILS loan product to provide the necessary financing SMEs all over the UK who are losing revenue due to COVID-19.
Rob Straathof, CEO of Liberis, commented: “Our significant growth in the past two years has highlighted the need in the market for SME support, especially during uncertain times. As an SME ourselves, we understand the plight and have survived an economic downturn. With uncertainty in the market, funding can be hard to access from more risk averse institutions. We are thrilled to have extra resources to help our partners support SMEs’ survival through COVID and beyond.”