London fintech Kriya lands new finance facility to fund £1 billion business customer payments
London fintech lender Kriya has secured a new £50 million finance facility as it marks the latest stage of its rapid international expansion.
The Shoreditch-based firm, dubbed the Klarna of the B2B world, allows merchants to offer business customers favourable payment terms for products, such as deferring payments by 30 or 60 days or splitting the cost of goods up over several months.
The payment arrangements have become popular with small businesses wrestling with tighter cashflow amid strained economic conditions, who find it challenging to stump up the money for larger orders until their customers have made purchases. It has partnered with several major UK firms including signing a deal with Halfords in December.
Backed by Barclays and formerly known as MarketFinance, Kriya agreed the facility with Israeli private equity firm Viola and will use the cash to power more than £1 billion in payments over the next two years.
Founded in 2011 and now operating in the UK, Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands, Poland and Belgium, Kriya has helped businesses collect over £27 billion in B2B payments, and advanced over £3.5 billion worth of credit to suppliers and buyers.
CEO Anil Stocker told the Standard: “We think that there are a lot of exciting things happening in the embedded finance market. This new facility allows certainty of funding and makes us a reliable business to choose.
“Our plan for 2024 and 2025 is we’re aiming to sign up larger merchants such as FTSE 250 companies who want to sell better into their business segment and drive revenue growth.
“We are in hiring mode again – we’re growing the team in commercial and risk and product so this is a catalyst to grow more.”
Ido Vigdor, General Partner at Viola Group, said: “This new evolution of offering embedded B2B Payments to merchants allows them to reach even more small businesses by removing fiction in the purchasing process. We’re happy to be deepening our support at this interesting time, by backing one of the leaders in B2B fintech.”
