TRIVER raises further £20m to provide small businesses with instant capital in a click
LONDON – 21 November 2023: SME working capital provider TRIVER has raised a further £20m to revolutionise how small businesses can access finance
The deal – a £20m debt facility with Luxembourg-based Avellinia Capital – will enable TRIVER to offer over £200m of funding annually to help small businesses in the UK and further its product development.
Leveraging Open Banking data and sophisticated AI, TRIVER funds small business’ short-term working capital needs, underwriting the risk of small business borrowing instantly and automatically. Faster and more easily than high street banks, it can provide advances on a business’s client invoices 24/7, offering peace of mind of simple access to capital when needed.
The £20m raise follows £7m equity funding announced in April 2023 involving Andreessen Horowitz, Stride VC, Axeleo Capital, Motive Partners, and Sequoia Capital. TRIVER subsequently launched its first prototype in May and a commercial proposition with paying customers in August. It has already advanced invoices with a combined value of more than £1m. The average invoice size is £12,000 and the average duration of funding is 30 days.
Jerome Le Luel, Founder & CEO, said: “The vast majority of SMEs we interact with are willing to grant us access to their bank data via Open Banking. They’re familiar with this tool because it is commonly used with their accounting software. They see the benefit of a simpler process than manually providing bank statements and other data. Nor do they have to make personal guarantees when applying to us.”
With TRIVER, small businesses are granted a new facility within 3 hours of starting their application, and invoices typically take 2.5 minutes to fund. In coming months, TRIVER plans to reduce this to sub-10 minutes to open a new facility, and less than 1 minute to advance an invoice. In comparison, banks typically take up to 4 weeks to open a facility and 24 hours to advance an invoice because of their manual processes.
Christoph Pfundstein, Partner at Avellinia Capital, said: “We are proud to support TRIVER in its journey to become a significant funding provider to UK SMEs. TRIVER has by now a proven model that is set to transform the SME finance market in terms of user experience, decisioning speed, and attractive pricing. Credit provided by banks is slow to be approved and typically costs between 2% and 4% for a 30-day term versus 1.8% offered by TRIVER. There is enormous potential.”
Le Luel added: “In the current economic climate, we see significant demand from SMEs to access short-term cash flow financing as payment terms extend and banks tighten access to credit. Thanks to continuous access to Open Banking data, we are confident we can manage the credit risk of our customers over the short horizon of their invoices.”
TRIVER is designed to be embedded within digital service providers already serving SMEs. These providers benefit from easy-to-integrate, automated processes that make it simpler to provide a short-term working capital solution to support their customers. They can also receive a value-share back when their customers use TRIVER’s service.
TRIVER has already signed 11 distribution partners since launching, spanning commercial brokers and lending platforms. These include Funding Options by Tide, Newable, Swoop, Clear Business Finance, and Capitalise.
Steve Green, Director at Clear Business Finance, said: “Our customers that have used TRIVER tell us they highly appreciate the experience. The process to access working capital is slick and they love the speed and great value on offer. With this very robust proposition, we believe instant capital delivered through TRIVER will quickly grow in popularity.”
TRIVER is in conversations with prospective partners in other sectors including banks, accounting software, insurance, utilities, and FX, and plans to launch more partnerships in the coming months.
Triver raises £7m to provide small businesses with instant capital in a click
LONDON – 19th April 2023: Triver has announced it has raised £7m equity from top investors to revolutionise how small businesses can access finance.
Leveraging Open Banking data and sophisticated AI, Triver funds SMEs’ short-term working capital needs, underwriting the risk of small business borrowing instantly and automatically. Faster and more easily than high street banks, it can provide advances on a business’s client invoices 24/7, offering peace of mind of simple access to capital when needed.
Through this automated approach, SMEs can access finance equivalent to up to 20% of their annual turnover, instantly, and at a more competitive rate than other small business financing options in the market. Transaction-level insights mean Triver understands the likelihood of a small business to pay back.
The venture is backed by Stride, whose team has backed early-stage businesses such as Deliveroo and Zoopla. Other seed investors include Axeleo Capital and Motive Partners, with scout investment from Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital. Angel investors include Triver’s non-executive director Dan Cobley – former Google UK MD and co-founder of ClearScore and Salary Finance.
Triver is led by CEO founder Jerome Le Luel, one of the world’s foremost experts in deploying advanced credit analytics at world-class lenders. He is former Chief Risk Officer at Funding Circle and former global head of risk analytics for Barclays.
Jerome is joined by a strong founding team who know how to build sophisticated lending technology. They bring expertise gained at Barclays, Capital One, MarketFinance, Credit Karma, BCG, and more.
Jerome Le Luel said: “Existing short-term finance solutions rarely fully satisfy small businesses. Yet it’s not a simple puzzle to solve. SMEs have complex cash flow dynamics and underwriting their credit risk automatically is very hard – it has not been a priority for banks.
“But at Triver, we’ve cracked the code. Using Open Banking and artificial intelligence we are revolutionising how SMEs access finance and are partnering with digital service providers already trusted by these businesses.”
Built for partners
Triver uses a combination of sophisticated AI and digital processing to deliver a seamless customer experience. It is designed to be embedded within digital service providers already serving SMEs – for example, accounting platforms, digital banks, payment providers, and procurement tools.
Embedded finance for SMEs has typically been targeted at the ecommerce sector. But with Triver, every small business that invoices clients has the potential to access finance when they need it, through a service provider they trust.
Fred Destin, Founder at Stride.VC said: “With millions of small businesses in the UK, there is a huge underserved market for SME finance – primarily due to antiquated lending processes. The right data and technology is now available to radically change this. With Triver we will make lending to the founders and business owners of the real economy way more efficient and economical. This is a mission we’re delighted to support.”
Jerome Le Luel added: “We’re partnering with fintech and SaaS providers who recognise the opportunity for short-term working capital solutions to support their SME clients. Through our API, we provide an embedded solution that will sit on these providers’ own platforms. Not only do we offer the best value short-term financing to SMEs, we also provide a value-share back to partners. By working with us, they can earn additional income without worrying about debt funding and credit risk.”
