Fractal partners with Untied tax app for £5m BCR bid

Payments provider Fractal and tax app Untied have teamed-up as part of a bid filed last month for part of the BCR’s £100m Pool E fund, AltFi can reveal. 

The bid marks the 5th to be made publicly available alongside Funding Xchange and Enterprise Nation, Starling Bank, Ezbob and Coconut, who have all revealed their bids in the last few weeks. 

Fractal and Untied have made two joint applications, for £5m and £2.5m, which the duo plan to use in order to commercialise a cash flow management tool called SMART (SMEs Manage Accounts Receivables and Tax). 

The tool will help sole traders anticipate costs, specifically around tax payments, which often come as a shock to this group, of which Untied found 51 per cent don’t even know their HMRC logins. 

“Taxes are an important part of cash management. They’re particularly complex for sole traders. COVID support has helped many businesses and has highlighted the need for accurate and timely reporting,” said Untied CEO Kevin Sefton. 

“The SMART initiative is transformational - we don’t just allow taxes to be estimated, but do full calculations and submit filings as well. Its powerful automation saves entrepreneurs time, money and worries, freeing them to get on with stuff that matters to them.” 

SMART would be initially delivered by Untied, and built using Fractal’s APIs. 

“The BCR Capability and Innovation fund money would accelerate our effort to help these businesses in their greatest time of need,” said Fractal CEO and co-founder Nicholas Heller. 

“We believe the grant would be best dispersed to fintechs on the ground who can empathise with and immediately support small businesses with the tools they require.” 

Awardees for the pots of Pool E that Fractal and Untied, and Coconut are all applying for will be announced by the BCR on 17 August.