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Transforming into a multi-product lending platform for small businesses
We’ve had great success as a primarily single-product category company offering term loans – serving more than 135,000 SMEs over the years. We want to do the same as a multi-product company, by solving more of the funding challenges faced by SMEs and meeting more of their needs. To do this, we need to add new products to our offering and we made great progress in 2022 with FlexiPay
Introducing FlexiPay
FlexiPay is a line of credit that allows businesses to make purchases and then spread the cost over three months, paying back in three equal monthly instalments. It’s designed to give businesses access to short-term cash flow when it’s needed, allowing them to seize growth opportunities, deal with late payments or supply chain delays, or spread quarterly costs out monthly.
Customers can apply in minutes and receive an instant decision, with credit limits of £2,000 to £250,000. With no set-up or annual fees, customers only pay when they use it. We charge no interest, just a simple flat fee on each transaction, giving them flexibility while being able to plan with confidence.
An easy, fast, flexible product, FlexiPay enhances our reputation for designing finance products around the needs of SMEs. FlexiPay customers now have access to credit to pay, and during 2023 we’ll enable more customers to use FlexiPay to spend as we expand our FlexiPay card beta trial too.
FlexiPay enables SMEs to manage their cash flow by spreading the cost of payments
How does it work?
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2.
Get an approved line of credit for business prayments
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FlexiPay: pay supplier now
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Repay over three months with 0% interest and a flat fee
Introducing Lending as a Service (“LaaS”)
What is Lending as a Service?
Funding Circle’s offering allows financial institutions to give their customers a fully integrated, digital end-to-end borrowing experience without the significant investment and resources required to build or buy their own platform. By leveraging Funding Circle’s technology and expertise, financial institutions can quickly and easily enter the digital lending market, offer loans to their business customers and earn attractive interest and fee revenue.
Why institutions choose us:
- More than a decade’s experience originating SME lending
- Technology-enabled product delivers superior customer experience
- With loan offers in <24 hours after document submission
- Minimal upfront cost or investment to launch a pilot
- Revenue share model drives profitability
- As simple as a turnkey solution to full integration
Our end-to-end SME lending solution for partners is unique to the market
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Key
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Customers
Marketing
- Data analytics
- Design support to identify target market segments to drive customer engagement through email, direct mail, embedded application, landing page, co-marketing and third party customer contact
Digital application
- Co-branded or white-labelled digital application accessible via dedicated landing page 5
- 6 minutes for borrower to complete
- Optional third party API integrations to seamlessly augment customer data
Sales
- Customers provided a dedicated Funding Circle account manager
- One-on-one support provided throughout the process
- Market leader in customer satisfaction
Underwriting
- Ten-year credit model performance delivering attractive returns
- Advanced underwriting technology combines risk models and expert human judgement
- Predicting future loan performance more accurately than conventional credit scoring
Operations
- Optional in-house collections and recoveries
- Automatic financial statement parsing
Loan offer and fulfilment
- Fully digital loan document delivery and execution
Funding
- Customers receive funding in as little as 48 hours after application approval
- Partners generate attractive revenue via interest income
Servicing
- Funding Circle can retain servicing for a low fixed fee
- Customers have access to online portal for self-servicing
- Market leader in customer satisfaction
8 Rocks Deli & Wine
Since 2017, 8 Rocks Deli & Wine has been offering the local community food and fine wines under one roof. FlexiPay is helping founder Vik to stay one step ahead.
Vik moved to the UK from Latvia in 2004 and spent 12 years working his way up the career ladder in the hospitality sector. However, Vik always wanted to run his own business and in 2017, 8 Rocks opened in Loughton, Essex.
Starting with just sandwiches, the cafe soon became a deli by day and a wine bar by evening, fuelled by Vik’s enthusiasm to bring fine wine to the local community. However, as the business got into its stride, the pandemic brought challenges to the hospitality sector. While initially closed for six weeks, Vik seized the opportunity to introduce takeaway and delivery services, and behind the scenes he refurbished the shop to create a new space for the community. He has now begun inviting artists for live performances and holding wine tastings — most of 8 Rocks’ events are fully booked months in advance.
Having initially received a government-backed RLS loan from Funding Circle during the pandemic, Vik learned about new product FlexiPay from his Funding Circle Account Manager, and in April 2022 was one of the early tranche of customers to be approved for a line of credit.
8 Rocks has used FlexiPay to help set the business up for success in the future by being better able to plan ahead. Vik has used the approved line of credit to buy stock, such as wine, in bulk in advance of upcoming events. This enables him to negotiate better prices from suppliers and he typically secures around a 10% discount. Vik has also been able to purchase much-needed equipment, spreading the cost into three instalments rather than having to pay everything upfront.
As a result of Vik’s ongoing investment in the business, 8 Rocks continues to grow and develop as a multi-functional community space. When the shop is closed, Vik offers the space for private events, team bonding exercises and more. He has recently hired a marketing team to take 8 Rocks to the next level and the business is already reaping the benefits with footfall into 8 Rocks on the up once again. It’s going to be a wine-derful 2023!
