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Manchester’s DueCourse raises £6.25m backed by Zoopla and LoveFilm founders

Cloud-based SME financing firm DueCourse has raised £6.25m funding from some high-profile backers.

The Manchester-based startup, which offers lending to SMEs based on pending invoice payments, has drawn investment from Global Founders Capital along with the founder and CEO of Zoopla, Alex Chesterman, and Co-Founder of LoveFilm, Simon Franks.

Due to the way in which the FinTech firm lends directly to SMEs, the investment is structured to include £1.25m in equity funding with a further £5m of debt to support its debt financing.

DueCourse is able to rapidly offer businesses lending quotes based on their invoices by integrating directly with major accounting software such as Sage One, FreeAgent and Xero, along with other external data to carry out its own risk modelling.

Speaking to TechCrunch, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer Paul Haydock, said: “We allow small businesses using cloud accounting the ability to access the money tied-up in their unpaid invoices whenever they like, in just a few clicks.”

He went on to explain that the proliferation of cloud accounting software gave the firm ready access to a wealth of information about interested businesses which feeds back into its own risk modelling.

He added: “The rise of cloud accounting within the SME market over the past few years has enabled us to access real-time accounting information, which we combine with other external sources of data to generate a proprietary risk score for lending to small businesses.”

Alternative financing for SME is a major growth area, as more cautious lending practices from traditional lenders such as major banks can make it difficult for smaller businesses to access the necessary funding.

Manchester-based rival MarketInvoice, which operates on a peer-to-peer (P2P) lending model, has been particularly active in the North West following a £20m partnership with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority last year, highlighting the appetite for SME funding in the region.

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