A digital start-up which promises to give small businesses credit decisions within minutes has secured close to £100m of new funding to accelerate its growth.
Sky News understands that Triver, which was founded in 2023, will announce on Wednesday the completion of a £14m Series A equity fundraising led by US-based investor AlleyCorp.
The equity-raise also includes backing from existing investors, with funds including Axeleo Capital, Inkberry Ventures and Stride VC all participating.
Triver has also secured £35m in debt financing from HSBC Innovation Banking – the division of the banking giant which includes what was Silicon Valley Bank UK – with a further £35m lined up from the same lender in future subject to credit approval.
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An existing debt facility provided by Avellinia Capital has been extended from £20m to £30m.
Triver was founded by Jerome Le Luel, a former executive at Funding Circle, with the aim of addressing structural challenges confronting SMEs, such as unfavourable payment terms, volatile sales trends and a lack of financial management expertise.
He identified a void left by the major UK high street banks, utilising Open Banking data to provide a digital service to help fund SMEs’ working capital requirements.
The company’s board members include Dan Cobley, a former Google UK managing director, and co-founder of the UK-based fintechs ClearScore and Salary Finance.
Mr Le Luel, who also worked at Barclays and Capital One, said: “We solve one of the biggest problems in the real economy – suppliers and staff need to be paid on time, yet clients take time to pay.
“With 55 days of average payment terms, UK small businesses are constantly owed £150bn in commercial invoices waiting to be paid.
“Triver allows these businesses to turn their client invoices into instant cash flow, at any time, to fund working capital needs.”
He described it as “the most flexible and cost-effective solution to smooth cashflow without taking new debt”.
Since launching, Triver has built a client base of more than 1,500 businesses and funded more than 17,000 invoices worth roughly £180m, it said.
The company says its SME clients are typically granted a new facility within ten minutes of starting their application, with invoices taking less than 5 minutes to fund.
This compares to a standard period for high street banks of four weeks to open a facility, and up to 24 hours to advance an invoice.
Clare Mitchell, director, fintech at HSBC Innovation Banking UK, said the new debt facility would enable Triver “to continue to scale its cashflow finance offering to an ever-growing number of small businesses across the UK”.
