After identifying a “significantly underbanked niche” in Australia, a Switzerland-based alternative lender has announced its expansion into the market with a new SME offering.
Tradeplus24 uses automated credit technology to assess data and calculate risk all the way down to individual invoices – in real time.
Further, the variable credit lines at Tradeplus24 will range between $500,000 and $10m, whereas most alternative lenders cap SME loans at $250,000. Additionally, property will not be required as collateral.
According to the MD of Tradeplus24 Australia, Adam Lane, the lender’s model arose from “an urgent need for more innovative business credit solutions.”
“We’ve heard stories of SMEs having to hire a bookkeeper just to maintain an invoice finance facility with a traditional lender because of their manual processes. We’re relatively new and can leverage the best of 2019 technology, which employs real-time integration and is algorithmic rather than operationally intensive,” explained Lane.
The managing director said that the lender has received “incredibly positive” feedback from brokers.
“We’ve had very experienced commercial brokers look at the terms and conditions of the product, look at the features, and the response is that the market is absolutely ready for a line of credit that sits alongside the receivables product,” Lane said.
“In our solution, the business owner keeps control of the cashflow, they keep control of their relationships, they manage their business as they do today, and we’re just monitoring what our security position is relative to their receivables. We don’t really get involved unless there’s an imbalance between how much they’ve borrowed and how much security we’ve got pledged against that. “
Tradeplus24 is backed by Credit Suisse and has already raised $173.6m in debt and equity in February. It is currently in the advanced stages of negotiating a nine-figure debt facility, and hopes to announce its funding partner sometime within the next month.
