Exclusive: Sonovate makes pivot to embedded finance, eyes £3bn of lending

Fintech lender Sonovate, which provides invoice financing to recruitment firms, is pivoting its business to embrace the embedded finance market. 

Sonovate has been stealthily working on a new cloud-native, API-first lending platform, after expanding its tech team from 20 to 60 people based between its London and Cardiff offices.

The new platform will allow it to help more enterprise-level businesses with finance on an ad hoc basis. 

Enterprise businesses are organisations that generate average annual revenues in excess of £10,000,000, many more of whom are dealing with the growing trend towards more flexible, freelance and contract work, CEO of Sonovate Richard Prime says.

“As the demand for flexible working increases, our customer needs have become more sophisticated. Our new platform will not only strengthen our lending service but enable us to expand into new geographies and fund more types of businesses, especially larger businesses.” 

The new invoice platform will provide instant funding decisions and credit limits, variable advance and facility management increased automation and enhanced reporting via an API.

The lender has seen growing business from enterprise customers which currently account for about a third of its funding, but the amount lent to them increased 144 per cent last year as the pandemic continued its march against normal labour market conditions.

Last year, Sonovate says it funded a total of £700m, a 58 per cent increase on 2020’s total of £444m. 

Over 30,000 freelancers, contractors and gig workers in more than 40 countries have now received payments from over 3,500 businesses funded by the company’s funds. 

The firm has been lending since 2014 and expects to £3bn since then this summer.