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London-Madrid headquartered fintech Twinco Capital has closed its latest capital injection with a €2.5 million round A led by Finch Capital.
This new equity puts Twinco on track to become the first company to offer the holy grail of supply chain finance, on a global scale – the ability to provide liquidity to suppliers when they most need it, from purchase order financing all the way up to final invoice payment.
Twinco is part of the growing successful women-led fintech community, with CEO Sandra Nolasco and COO Carmen Marin at the helm.
Commenting on the recent equity round, Nolasco comments; “We are delighted to have the backing of such a well-regarded fintech venture capitalist as Finch Capital and thankful for the continuous support of our shareholders.
“Finch Capital has experience in the tech-lending industry and will be a major contribution to scale-up Twinco,” she adds. “It was also important to have the validation and interest from the venture capital community. We learned a lot in the process and we value the network that we have built”.
The capital injection comes as Twinco gears up the scale of its operations with the launch its second Twinco finance programme with a major European retailer.
Marin says: “Twinco has financed over US$2 million of purchase orders for Asian and European suppliers of a medium-sized Spanish fashion house, under its first Twinco finance programme (beta version). This new equity round will help us gear up to scale. This month we will launch our second Twinco finance programme for a major European retailer, offering finance to suppliers worldwide, and in particular China, Bangladesh and South Korea.”
Nolasco explains: “We engage with European retailers to offer liquidity to their suppliers. Twinco pays up to 60% up front – when the supplier receives the purchase order – so they can use the funds to buy raw materials and fund production. It pays the remaining upon delivery and then Twinco (not the supplier) waits for the buyer to pay on invoice due date. No letters of credit, no prepayments, no collateral. We bank on the strength of the commercial relationships, saving money and reducing risk to both suppliers and buyers."
“For far too long, supply chain finance has been restricted to invoice discounting. It provides liquidity once the goods have been shipped and the invoice is issued, says Nolasco. “However, suppliers need the money much earlier. The trade finance gap is arguably one of the main obstacles for SMEs and economic growth in emerging markets. Twinco is closing that gap!”
Raadboud Vlaar, partner at Finch Capital will also join Twinco’s Board as a non executive member.
Vlaar comments: ''We believe there is a huge financing inefficiency in the early phases of the supply chain finance market. Purchase order finance products have been close to impossible to access for suppliers in emerging markets, and in particular in South-East Asia. Twinco has the platform and capabilities to disrupt the way these entities get financed, an innovative approach to manage risk and a highly sophisticated team to pull this off.”
As Nolasco concludes: ‘In a nutshell, a fully integrated supply chain finance offering, that starts with the purchase order and finishes with invoice payment is no longer a vision on a business plan. It is a reality! Twinco’s team is now making that happen for more and more companies.’
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