What is supply chain finance?

Supply chain finance solves a tension every growing business knows: your suppliers want paying quickly, but you want to hold onto your cash for as long as possible. It lets you do both.

Here is the mechanism, sometimes called reverse factoring:

• A funder pays your supplier early, often within days of an approved invoice.
• The pricing is usually based on your credit strength, not the supplier’s, so it can be cheaper than the supplier funding themselves.
• You repay the funder later, on terms that suit your cash cycle.

The result is a supplier who gets paid promptly, and often more willingly offers you good terms, while you keep your working capital free for longer.

It is especially useful for stock-heavy and retail businesses, where cash is tied up in goods rather than in a sales ledger, so invoice finance does not fit. In our own book, retail and e-commerce businesses are far more likely than average to use trade or supply chain finance for exactly this reason.

If your cash is stuck between paying suppliers and selling to customers, this is often the product that fits. We will look at your supply chain and match you to a funder that works for both sides.