Fintech Skippr obtains a $ 16 million loan from fintech batsmen

The small financial financing firm Skippr has shrugged off the concern that the indefinitely delayed IPO of its prospective peer venture Prospa could defer investors in the sector, attracting some of the biggest hitters of the local fintech scene to a $ 16 million debt and equity financing round.

Pepper co-founder and former CEO Patrick Tuttle and SocietyOne and Douugh, co-founder Andy Taylor, both invested in the round, which includes $ 1 million of shares from high net worth investors and $ 15 million of debts.

Skippr was founded two and a half years ago by the former senior partner of the NAB business agribusiness and the MarketInvoice team under the command of Alistair Lamond alongside former fund manager Patrick Crivelli and, as Prospa, draws on the gap for small business financing.

The main income factor is an invoice financing operation, which provides small businesses with loans based on their assets and a cash flow forecasting tool for small businesses to track, manage and forecast the finances in real time.

Prospa fluctuating was postponed to the last minute for an indefinite period in June, following questions about whether its loan contracts had violated new laws. Mr. Crivelli stated that the failure of the IPO was a case of "unfortunate timing", which did not reflect on the strong business that Prospasi built.

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"We operate in a slightly different part of the market, our size of the structures are a little bigger and our strategy is different," he said The Australian Financial Review .

"We are competing with them on some agreements, but we are not necessarily going head to head."

Carrying on

Mr. Crivelli said that the financial market was largely dominated by companies that had not traditionally invested in their technology systems. So he believed there was plenty of room to grow a company based on cutting-edge technology.

The terms of the loan of Skippr involve an annual interest rate of 14-15% and a reduced commission of approximately 1%.

This is among the interest rates of secured loans and the high rates charged by unsecured lenders. Up to now it has signed 260 companies for the platform and 110 accounting and accounting.

Mr. Crivelli said it took nine months to close the financial round, but he refused to disclose who had provided the debt financing, as well as saying that it was soon Financial Services.

"Fundraising now means that we can expand and finance smaller businesses and connect them to our technology," said Lamond.

"For the next 12 months we will line up around $ 40 million in financing invoices and get most of the debt structure out of the door.

" Small businesses do not come to us for one-off loans, it's a rotating cash flow structure. Equity will go towards the growth of the team and the construction of more technology. "

Consolidation of the sector

Mr. Lamond foresees a consolidation among unsecured lenders in the markets in the coming years, with major players such as Prospa who probably

Ma said that there is still space for new entrants to finance invoices in Australia, with the local market size much smaller than comparable countries.

"In the United Kingdom the debtor's finance is 15 cent of GDP, compared to 5% in Australia", he said.

"The most difficult challenge and the biggest obstacle to growth here is the lack of understanding on the part of the borrower. It's still an esoteric concept for many borrowers, so I think the educational piece is very important. "