Every year across Europe, hundreds of thousands of companies are driven into insolvency because of late or nonpayment 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.
Prior to the project start, we had 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 allows us to protect German and French SMEs for both their domestic trade and exports to the UK, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands 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.
