1-billion-euro mark-close Factris CEO Brian Reaves: “There has never been a better time to join us as an investor”

Eyeing a whopping 1 billion euros in volume per year, Brian Reaves, the CEO of Factris, a hot lender empowering SMEs through financial technology with personalized guidance, says there has never been a better time to join Factris as an investor. “Having already financed more than 800 million euros in invoices, we are now driving hard to the 1 billion mark in the first quarter of 2023! However, most importantly our industry leading non-performing loan metrics continue to improve,” Brian Reaves told The Baltic Times Magazine.

Say, I need to finance my SME, but I’m not sure how. Why does it make sense to talk to Factris about that, not call my personal manager in a Scandinavian-capital bank?

Interestingly, that’s the same real-life situation that led to Factris’ beginning: the existing SME financing options weren’t good enough, so we introduced something better.

This was due to the fact that SMEs need access to quick, convenient capital to keep growing–but banks often make things very complicated and can take weeks or longer to provide this capital, assuming an SME qualifies in the first place. 

Contrast the delays, complications, and uncertainty of banks with the fast, simple process at Factris: customers apply online, submit a few necessary pieces of information along with the unpaid invoice, receive approval, and finally get the capital they need–all within a day or less.

Lastly, banks restrict capital allocations to SMEs when the economy slumps, so the coming recession will be made worse for SMEs without Factris supporting them. Factris is an all-weather funder. 

You also manage debts. Talk about that, please.

SMEs in different industries often seek financing for the same reason: to receive working capital faster and easier. 

Thus, the long payment period is often the actual problem that needs solving, which is what Factris directly provides. An SME can essentially transfer the invoice over to us for a small fee; from there, it’s no longer their problem–their receivables collection and debt management are now our responsibility.

We’ll then take care of everything associated with the debt, allowing our clients to focus on more important matters, like running their business.

And you provide insurance, too, don’t you?

Yes, we do. As Factris continues to grow, we offer more financing products and tools such as credit insurance to satisfy each client’s unique needs. In cooperation with our insurance partner, we can insure any and all receivables if that’s what an eligible client chooses. 

This lets our clients rest easy, knowing they have protection from a number of issues, such as possible debtor insolvency.

I am sure you call Factris unique, yet, objectively, where does it stand out?

Where many have tried, Factris is the only pan-European fintech with a unified product offering to succeed as a receivables asset manager.

Part of our formula for success is the focus on making financing as easy, accessible and fast as possible for SMEs.

We make SME financing easy by taking concrete steps to make our customer service second to none. After all, we all know how frustrating automation in customer service has become, which is precisely why we do the opposite: assign each customer their own personal account manager to answer their questions, help make decisions, provide guidance, etc.

But we’re also so fast with our financing availability by fully embracing automation and technology–and in some cases, even pioneering it. For example, we developed an AI-powered risk management system thanks to EU funding, making a once tedious task exponentially quicker. And we developed our very own Finance Automation for Business, or FAB, to provide a simple, one-stop platform for clients to quickly upload invoices, monitor payments, receive same-day capital, and request credit limits.

Speaking of the accomplishments over the last couple of years, what are they? What are you proud of the most? Why?

The awards we’ve received are certainly appreciated, such as being named SME Financing Innovators of the Year at the 2022 FinTech Awards.

But what I’m most proud of is seeing real-life proof that our vision for better SME financing is taking place. For example, we started out in 2017 serving markets in only one EU country; now we’re in five, with several more EU markets in the works for next year. And we had an annual revenue increase of 42% year over year for Q2 of 2022–and that took place while a major war raged on. 

To me, this growth and expansion data all proves that our beliefs and ideas about the best way to finance SMEs have been right all along.

 What is your message to your possible investors? And talk about the current ones, please.

Factris’ ongoing growth is impossible to ignore and our investors are quite happy!

For example, Factris is thrilled to announce that over the last 2 years we have grown 200%! We are a rare fintech with a healthy gross margin and a highly cash-flow-generative business model.

Not only that, but we’re also expanding the number of markets we serve. For example, after successfully launching our innovative financing solutions in Belgium and Poland, we will follow up with Germany and Estonia in 2023.

This growth and expansion is in part due to our ongoing innovation, which is possible thanks to the support of our new financing partners. This empowers us to keep rolling out new financing products and platforms to address all credit-worthy SMEs to fill the gap left by traditional banks.

Having already financed more than 800 million euros in invoices, we are now driving hard to the 1 billion euro mark in Q1 2023! However, most importantly our industry leading non-performing loan metrics continue to improve.

So, as we surpass expectations, it becomes clear that there has never been a better time to join us as an investor.

At the end of the day, before making the decision, I may ask this: “Am I eligible?”

Factris finances SMEs of all sizes and industries. This is possible because our technological innovations have always been centered around helping the customer–after all, that’s why we developed our AI risk-management system and our own platform. 

These technologies let customers know in a matter of hours if they’re eligible or not for our financing. That’s why we invite anyone interested to create an account and start applying to see if they’re eligible. 

How long does it take to hear from you after my application has been submitted?

Thanks to Factris’ automation and technological innovations, we let our customers know within one business day if their application has been approved, and sometimes even within a matter of hours.

What is next for Factris?

Thanks to further funding we received in the past year, Factris will continue to expand the availability of fast working capital to EU SMEs, including those still affected by the residual effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and SMEs who have been struggling from economic fallout due to the war in Ukraine. 

As we continue to grow and offer our services in several new EU markets, we are inviting new investors to join our journey towards our next goal of 1 billion euro in volume per year.