Founded in July 2015 by Leigh Dunsford and Simon Creighton – owners of invoice factoring company Trade Advance – Waddle is an invoice financing platform, which has provided about 20 Australian SMEs with approximately $1m in financing to date. Last January, the company was reportedly looking to raise as much as $18 million in debt and equity. On that occasion, we caught up with Leigh, who explained that the new funds would have been used for opening new lines of credit.
Leigh offered comment on the Xero deal:
“It’s not often that an entire industry can evolve and thanks to the tight integration with Xero’s ecosystem, we can now offer efficient data exchanges as part of Xero’s financial web that thousands of SME’s will benefit from. Waddle allows Xero customers to opt-in to connect for real-time monitoring, which leverages data analytics to provide a revolving line of credit that mimics traditional overdrafts. The line of credit automatically adjusts with a business's cash flow cycle. Waddle is placed in a true financial technology position ahead of any competition, combined with Xero’s rich data environment opens businesses to unprecedented access and control over their cash flow.”
By leveraging small business’ Xero data, Waddle claims to provide users with low interest rates, starting from 9.95% per annum. The company also claims to be able to deliver funds within one business day, cutting down a process that traditionally takes weeks with a traditional financial institution. Moreover, Waddle assures customers that applications will be “painless”, meaning that small business owners need simply to link their Xero account to Waddle, with only a few clicks, thanks to the seamless integration between the two companies.
Leigh concluded:
“Waddle is transforming the invoice financing marketplace with its Credit-as-a-Service (CaaS) offering, working with third-party software providers to embed functionality directly into the workflow of their applications, facilitating on-demand working capital critical to business growth. No one is directly competing with us today. Waddle is the only cash flow optimisation tool that integrates with existing cloud accounting solutions giving business owners access to funds associated with their outstanding invoices in real-time with just one-click.”
