Business
Investment in crowd-funding platform
Investment in crowd-funding platform.
About this update from Sancus Lending Group Limited
[{"type":"text","content":"\n \nRNS Number : 9342M GLI Finance Limited 02 September 2013 \n \n\n \nGLI Finance Limited announces investment in\ninvoice finance crowd-funding platform, Platform Black \n \n \nLondon, 2nd September 2013 -- GLI Finance Limited (\"GLIF\" or the \"Company\"), a specialist lender to small and medium sized businesses, today announces that it has invested £2m in the crowd-funding platform, Platform Black Limited (\"Platform Black\"). The investment is in the form of equity and preference shares, in return for which GLIF will own at least a 20% stake in the business. Geoff Miller, CEO of GLIF, has also joined the Platform Black Board.\n \nPlatform Black is the fastest growing online platform for crowd-funding invoice finance. The platform enables SMEs to get access to the money tied up in their invoices by auctioning them online to investors seeking attractive short-term returns.\n \nPlatform Black delivers cashflow on demand on a pay as you go basis. SMEs auction their invoices, remaining in control of all of the costs, to investors who compete to deliver the lowest cost of finance. Platform Black has advanced c. £21m to SMEs to date, and delivered net annualised returns of 12-15% to investors. Platform Black's service is entirely complementary with that of the banks and asset based lenders.\n \nGeoff Miller, CEO of GLI Finance, said: \"This investment is a perfect fit within our strategy of focusing on niche lending to SMEs and enables us to add short-term asset-based debt to our portfolio, while continuing to reinforce the geographical diversification of our business. We are delighted that Colin Levins, Louise Beaumont and their team have chosen to partner with us, and GLIF looks forward to building on this investment by trading on the platform, as well as investing in the business.\"\n \nColin Levins and Louise Beaumont, co-founders of Platform Black, commented: \"We are excited to have GLI Finance as a significant investor and partner in our business. In 2012, in the UK alone, the invoice finance market was worth £254bn. This, together with a gap in SME funding estimated to be between £84bn and £191bn by 2018, means that there is significant and growing demand for our services. There are excellent synergies between GLIF's other platforms and our business an...