Finturi
, the South Holland based invoice financing service provider has received the approval of Netherlands watchdog to operate its alternative financing platform across Netherlands. To those unfamiliar with term alternative financing, it is the practice where a business uses non-traditional means to raise working capital as per requirements and falls outside regulated banking and capital market environments. Some of the more popularly known alternative financing option are crowd funding, equity crowd funding, peer to peer consumer and business lending and revenue based financing. Invoice financing, the service provided by Finturi in one such alternative financing option that has been getting popular off late. In simple terms, this is a method where a company can use its invoices as a guarantee to borrow funds from the service provider when required. Finturi works with a mission of helping firms resolve their cash flow problems using its business to help them grow.
It hopes to build a platform which will connect businesses with financiers enabling the firms to borrow funds in a secure, easy, quick and low cost process. Also the firm’s platform provides an opportunity where financiers can invest in invoices and earn returns on their investment in limited period. The firm is researching various technologies such as machine learning, artificial intelligence and blockchain to further their goals and provide an alternative capital raising mechanism which is very fast compared to expensive, slow and paper heavy process which is widely practiced in current market. Since its launch in September 2018, the firm has constantly worked towards achieving its long term goal of making entire supply chain financing process highly efficient and fast using means of technology. To this end, the firm managed to secure funding worth 2 Million Euros in first quarter of 2019 and launched its platform’s beta version by Q3 2019.
Following quite some time where the firm operated its beta platform in controlled environment which saw participation from various businesses and financiers in Netherlands, it has managed to acquire official license from Dutch Authority of Financial Markets to open its services to all businesses which are registered with Dutch Chamber of Commerce greatly increasing its market base. The firm officially provides an option where businesses can directly register on its platform but given current market conditions which have led to turbulent scenario, businesses are required to register via their accountants or financial advisors to avoid potential risk from financier side.
Commenting on this approval from official regulatory body, Johannes Brouwer, CEO of Finturi said, “Finturi has been granted an exemption from AFM to operate its platform in the Dutch market. Small and Medium-sized businesses are very critical to the Dutch economy. Often, these businesses face problems raise working capital. We are very excited to make Finturi generally available in the Dutch market especially during these uncertain times when businesses need capital more than ever. We believe we can provide businesses a loan against the invoice within 24 hours at the best interest rates”.
