Jemma Ross is General Manager of Spinach, a business loan brokerage that specialises in arranging finance for new, growing or recently purchased businesses. She works with 26 financiers, but says FundTap offers something that none of the rest do.
“There are so many invoice finance companies out there, but FundTap is the only one we’ll use.
“They have a real contemporary way of doing it. For businesses, growth mode sounds great, but it can really hurt. There are often financial issues that come in that phase, and the best solutions help them to free up cash so they can keep on top of things and get bills paid early.”
What makes FundTap so different from the rest? Jemma says speed and disclosure are the two main differences, and they’re both really important to her clients.
“The most stress I see people having is struggling to keep up with wages or ordering enough supplies to fulfil a contract. If businesses are growing, they have to pay staff and bills, and when they can’t, everything falls over. Getting finance paid the same day they apply for it is incredibly helpful.”
Traditional invoice finance involves having suppliers and customers repay invoices directly to the finance company. However, FundTap allows users to be more discrete – businesses manage invoices themselves and automatically repay the borrowing when invoices are paid.
“Being able to get finance without disclosing it to a supplier or stakeholder is really important. It can be really embarrassing to say to someone, ‘I’m going to borrow money so I can fulfil your contract’. FundTap helps them to save face and avoid that kind of situation.”
Jemma says FundTap’s model often allows businesses to get finance when other lenders won’t loan them money.
“Getting further lending can be difficult if you’ve already got a big loan, but the way they approach risk is different, so they’ll take on something that others won’t.
“It’s transparent too – if they won’t lend money, they’ll say ‘If it gets to this point, we would,’ so it’s not just a blanket no. That gives businesses something to work towards.”
On top of all that, Jemma says FundTap founder and director Matt Peacey and Head of Business Growth Shane Laurence are just “good buggers”. To her, that matters.
“We’ve worked with them for the last couple of years and we’re just really happy with the partnership. Businesses expect me to be able to solve their finance problems, and having FundTap as a solution reflects well on me.”