Our mission is to help small businesses access fair and affordable finance.
We help SMEs of all sizes gain access to affordable working capital solutions.
Clear Factor was founded on the principle that all businesses should have equal access to affordable working capital solutions. Clear Factor is the UK’s first fully digital invoice finance marketplace where trade investors compete to buy SME invoices in a transparent, borderless and democratised ecosystem. Introducing SMEs to an affordable alternative to traditional lending, while creating an alternative asset class for funders.
Clear Factor's Origins
The idea came about after the financial crisis in 2008, where one of our founders had found himself in the thick of it all. In 2002 our co-founder, Ricky Shankar had put up his home as collateral while launching his then software services company. Despite it being profitable at the time, cash flow was becoming an issue and he required access to working capital to pay the monthly bills. Ricky investigated into invoice financing and within a few weeks agreed on an invoice finance facility allowing his company to draw down 85% of all invoices raised immediately, therefore solving all their cashflow problems. In the aftermath of the crash, his company was classified as ‘high risk’ despite it being a reliable client and was therefore given six months to find a new invoice finance lender. This is how it all started.
As a direct result of the financial crisis and having lived through the crash, in addition to receiving a poor experience of the existing processes regarding traditional invoice financing, Ricky had come up with the initiative to digitally reinvent the invoice financing sector once and for all. This idea then came to life when a team of technologically and strategically innovative financial professionals joined forces, along with the right digital technology and industry experience; Clear Factor was born.
