Wirecard is supporting Advanon’s entry into the German market. As the leading platform for invoice financing in Switzerland, Advanon offers small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Germany the opportunity to digitally pre-finance their invoices. Advanon buys all of a company’s receivables against third parties and settles the outstanding amount in real-time. As a cooperative partner, the Wirecard Bank supports Advanon by placing its German full bank licence at the company’s disposal as well as by assuming responsibility for payment processing.
The German factoring market is quite dynamic. In 2016, the German factoring industry recorded turnover of approximately EUR 216.9 billion. Nearly 30,000 customers took advantage of factoring for funding purposes as an alternative to short-term bank loans. This represents a year-on-year increase in customers of around 33.8% in 2015. Advanon has recognised this trend. After a successful launch and track record in the Swiss market, the company will now offer German SMEs cost-efficient, rapid invoice financing. Advanon’s online factoring platform is an online marketplace where SMEs can secure funding from investors for outstanding customer invoices in real-time.
Phil Lojacono, CEO and Co-founder at Advanon: “Late payments are one of the main problems that SMEs face. At the same time, short-term bank loans can be quite costly in terms of time frame and conditions. Many banks only accept claims starting from a six-figure sum; however, at Advanon, we welcome invoices with small amounts. We have the vision of enabling SMEs to fully focus on their growth and we look forward to implementing the business model with a strong partner like Wirecard.”
Thorsten Holten, Executive Vice President Sales Financial Institution and FinTech Europe at Wirecard, added: “Current statistics reveal that the factoring industry is undergoing a huge transformation, above all in the SMEs segment. As a leading supplier of digital financial technology, we are delighted to play a part in shaping this development.”
In comparison with conventional factoring service providers, Advanon does not have a minimum funding amount nor any blocking periods in place. SMEs benefit from immediate liquidity which allows them to exploit their growth potential. Furthermore, Advanon has developed an own database that increases security on both, the investors’ and debtors’, ends. Applying machine learning methods, the company’s own ‘Nectar’ is a meta search engine that assesses the financial and economic standing of SMEs by using machine learning technology.
