There has been a lot of uncertainty for the marketplace lending industry in Europe following the Brexit vote in June. But today MarketInvoice announced a financing round of £7.2 million, becoming the first European marketplace lending company to announce a fundraising round since the Brexit vote. This comes after their £6 million series A in August, 2015.
MarketInvoice is the largest marketplace lender focused on invoice finance in Europe. They are based in London and Manchester and are currently providing £1.5 million per day in cash flow to UK businesses. They are approaching the £1 billion mark, having lent £850 million already.
The investment was led by the MCI TechVentures Fund of MCI Capital which is a Polish private equity group. Northzone who has invested in the past also increased their investment in the company. According to the press release, the influx of cash will be used to ramp up marketing and continue product development. They will also broaden the businesses they serve from startups to mid sized companies.
Sylwester Janik, a Senior Partner at MCI capital addressed the uncertainty in the market related to the recent Brexit vote stating:
Following the result of the UK referendum, many might perceive investing in fintech as a risk. With MarketInvoice, it’s actually the opposite. We see an economic slowdown and a distracted banking sector as a potential opportunity to fuel growth of the platform. Through its prudent risk management, we believe MarketInvoice is well prepared to deal with changing market sentiment in the future.
Anil Stocker, Co-Founder and CEO of MarketInvoice echoed Sylwester’s optimism:
In the wake of Brexit, we think the coming months present a big opportunity for MarketInvoice. Recent intervention by the Bank of England suggests we might see significant reductions in bank lending. As in the aftermath of 2008, peer-to-peer lenders can once again step in to provide that funding when the banks move slowly. In every period of turmoil there exists huge opportunity – we believe our model will mature through this cycle, and prove we are here to stay.
While there is still a lot of uncertainty on how Brexit will ultimately affect marketplace lenders there are obviously some investors who see this as an opportunistic time. We won’t know for quite some time just how the platforms will be challenged but it is obvious that some people have a different viewpoint on how this all might play out.
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