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API-Enabled Invoice Protection in Europe

Project description

Making credit insurance accessible to European SMEs

Late and/or non-payments account for over 25% of SME insolvencies. Trade credit insurance could help, but today’s distribution focuses primarily on large corporates and leaves most SMEs unprotected. The EU-funded APIIP project aims to create a viable credit insurance market for European SMEs. Hokodo’s commercial innovation consists in embedding insurance into the tools that companies use on a daily basis - such as accounting software or trade marketplaces. The APIIP project will rely on advanced data analytics to assess the underlying credit risks and digitise the full customer journey. APIIP will support SMEs in France and Germany in domestic trade and exports to Italy, Spain, the UK and the US.

Objective

Every year across Europe, hundreds of thousands of companies are driven into insolvency because of late or non-payment of invoices. Trade credit insurance exists to mitigate this issue. However, the SMEs who could benefit the most do not currently have access because it is traditionally distributed by brokers, for whom the commissions generated by an SME are too low to justify the cost of sale.

Our vision comprises three pillars:

• commercial innovation - to make our Invoice Protection product available to SMEs by offering it at the point of need, as orders are accepted or invoices raised on the cloud accounting platforms or B2B marketplaces that SMEs use daily;

• analytical innovation - cutting-edge data science for superior credit analytics;

• technological innovation - real-time and automated pricing, underwriting and policy administration engines.

With current penetration only 0.25% today, we are creating the credit insurance market for SMEs.

Our three founders (ex-COO of a global insurer; ex-CEO and ex-CTO of the innovation unit at the world’s leading credit insurance co.) have the deep industry expertise and commercial insight required to make this project a success.

To date we have signed a deal with SCOR (the world’s 4th largest reinsurer) giving us risk capacity; launched our technology in the UK (demonstrating TRL6; our first policy was sold via centrifuge.io a trade finance fintech); begun onboarding another three partners in the UK; and built up a strong distribution pipeline with prospective European partners.

Work in this project will allow us to protect German and French SMEs for both their domestic trade and exports to the UK, Spain, Italy and the USA by integrating with our distribution partners, building credit analytics models and establishing insurance infrastructure. The project is a platform for further international and product expansion. SME instrument funding will enable us to realise €55M revenue within five years.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

SME-2 - SME instrument phase 2

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) H2020-EIC-SMEInst-2018-2020

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Coordinator

HOKODO
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 1 988 236,25
Address
39-41 RUE DE LA CHAUSSEE D'ANTIN
75009 PARIS
France

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SME

The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.

Yes
Region
Ile-de-France Ile-de-France Paris
Activity type
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 2 840 337,50
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