Excellence in FinTech: FundThrough
The business financing world is undergoing a transformation, with a myriad of freshman financial technology pioneers reshaping the way businesses acquire capital. Often, traditional lending avenues simply aren’t cutting it for small and mid-sized companies, many of which don’t follow conventional business models. These organizations, as well as those that only have a few years of operations under their belt, are being better served by the newest slate of B2B financing companies that place speed, convenience, and customer-centricity at the forefront. Toronto-based FundThough is a leader in this sphere, providing an innovative way for businesses to close the gaps between invoicing and receipt of payment.
Innovative Invoice Funding
FundThrough is one of the few invoice financing companies with a qualification and funding process that’s completed entirely online. It offers a simple application that only takes accounting information, invoice history, and the applicant’s customer-base into account, and it’s this approach to credit approval that makes FundThrough stand out.
While most lenders set strict thresholds for things like revenue, years in business and personal credit scores in order to mitigate risk, FundThrough founders believe that lending risk can be better assessed by revenue patterns and the quality of a company’s customers. In other words, organizations that do business with other trustworthy companies are more likely to be able to pay back invoice funds, regardless of the other aspects most lenders take into account.
What’s Now
In October 2016, FundThrough announced that it had obtained $24.6 million in its second round of funding. According to co-founder and CEO Steve Uster, these funds are being used “…to bring on partners who understand the needs of small businesses and the challenges they face.” To this point, the company has recently partnered with Quickbooks Online and FreshBooks to provide seamless access to funding directly from these accounting platforms. A new collaborative relationship between FundThrough and the enterprise and workforce management application developer Jobber is also making it easier for companies to close gaps in the payment cycle by integrating funding into the software.
What’s Next
There are a number of opportunities for FundThrough to expand in the invoice funding market. Uster is making the company’s underlying technology a priority, with upgrades slated for its credit decision automation process as well as further optimization of the platform’s user experience. There are also plans for additional partnerships with digitally-based accounting companies and other organizations that cater to small and medium businesses.