Worldpay Business Finance Goes Live

Liberis has tied up with one of the world’s leading payment processors.

Worldpay has joined forces with merchant cash advance provider Liberis to launch a new funding scheme by the name of Worldpay Business Finance. Liberis specialises in short-term advances which are repaid as a pre-set proportion of credit and debit sales. A quiet month of business will result in lower repayment amounts – as borrowers only pay back their loan when they themselves are earning.

Worldpay’s vast customer base now has the ability to seamlessly access this product. The partnership is quite the coup for Liberis, which is perhaps the largest of the UK’s direct lenders. Worldpay processes approximately 31 million mobile, online and in-store transactions on an average day, supporting around 400,000 merchants globally. Liberis is nearing a cumulative lending volume of £100m – a total that we expect to skyrocket as a result of this partnership.

The Worldpay Business Finance project may justifiably be tagged as yet another example of “network lending”. We recently surveyed the layout of this emergent and exciting islet, which features such schemes as Zopa loans for Uber drivers, MarketInvoice’s integration with Sage 50 Accounts, and so on. Such programmes allow for ease of access, but crucially they also allow lenders to draw upon the deep reserves of data that are contained within transaction based networks. Cash flows are the crucial credit consideration for a lender like Liberis. Worldpay has cash flow data in spades, which can be used to minimise friction in the lending process.

Rob Straathof, Managing Director Liberis UK, offered his thoughts:

“We’re excited to be partnering with Worldpay to expand flexible funding to even more small businesses across the UK. We understand how hard small businesses work and how important a fairly-priced and flexible credit solution is to help companies grow. Our flexible payment system means repayments are relative to income and there are no hidden fees or charges.”

Dave Hobday, UK Managing Director Worldpay, also commented:

“We’ve been concerned that the lack of affordable funding available to Britain’s SMEs is stopping great businesses from growing and thriving. Unlike traditional loans, the flexibility of Worldpay Business Finance means that payments can be structured in a way that better suits the models of small businesses.

"We work with around 280,000 small businesses in the UK and they make up a large proportion of our customers, so we want to help them flourish. By letting companies access cash relating to their future earnings, we are giving them the chance to grow in line with their ambition and potential.”