Recruitment lender tops £1bn funding mark

Sonovate has reached the £1bn mark since its inception around seven years.

A start-up recruitment lender provider has topped the £1bn funding mark.

Sonovate has funded over £1bn of invoices for recruitment agencies and consultancies since its inception in 2012 across 39 countries.

Sonovate tries to make the lending process less arduous by providing upfront funding against unpaid invoices.

Sonovate demonstrated its growth by saying in 2014 it provided just £1m in funding to UK business, a figure which it says has now grown to £1m funding a day.

Headcount has also grown from 32 to over 100 at Sonovate, the company said.

Sonovate co-CEO, Richard Prime (pictured), said: “The world of work is changing rapidly and the freelance economy is absolutely booming as a result.”

“This is great news for individuals looking to have more control over their work life and even better news for companies who now have access to a much wider and highly skilled talent pool."

“But for businesses to take advantage of this new freelance economy, they need cashflow to take on the contingent work they need, when they need it."

“That’s why we created Sonovate – to help companies take advantage of this new way of work and ultimately, grow much faster as a result.”

“We’re transforming the entire contingent worker market and to reach the £1 billion milestone so quickly is testament to this. We want to make funding even faster and easier for more people across the world and fulfil our vision of helping people to get paid when they need it.”

In September this year, Sonovate secured a bumper financing round.

The finance platform secured a £110m debt and equity finance round led by M&G Investments, Dawn Capital, Rocket Internet and MXB Holdings, the investment group which includes Bebo founders Michael and Xochi Birch.

The Series C funding is being used for developing Sonovate’s core product, as well as international expansion into Germany, the Netherlands and the US.

Sonovate last raised money in 2016—a £14m Series B of debt and equity led by Global Founders Capital and Dawn Capital.

Michael Birch, co-founder of MXB Holdings and founder of social networking site Bebo, said: "Richard and Damon’s vision to make it a reality for people to get paid when they need to access funds resonates with our team. Sonovate’s product expansion plans are very exciting and creates huge opportunities for the contingent workspace.”