iFactor

Idea

Introduction

Even before the Covid 19 crisis, the lack of working capital was the number one pain in SMEs' growth.

Worldwide, although 4 out of 5 new jobs are created by small businesses, over 90% of SMEs still have insufficient access to funding with a gap of over 2.7 trillion Euro with most SMEs considered low ticket size by the banks, with high processing and underwriting cost.

The post Covid 19 economic crisis will make this situation even worse.

iFactor is an alternative SME lending marketplace where SMEs can sell their outstanding invoices or apply for loans while banks and private investors can bid for these applications.

Developed as a change of paradigm solution, good for growth economic phases, best fit in times of crisis, iFactor is shifting the lender deal orientation towards the borrower, the value creator entrepreneur.

iFactor’s high degree of novelty comes from using proprietary technology in the KYC and underwriting process, digitalising the lending & factoring procedure.

Substantial accomplishments to date

iFactor business model and tech innovation were created in close connection with a deep market need.

In order to better understand our customer's needs, we have done the following steps:

- 160 customer interviews in CEE - Cult Research conclusions in marketing strategy.

- 1,000+ applications during public Romanian beta launch within 6 months with 0 marketing budget.

- Attained €12m secured lending liquidity from banks and investors including Banca Transylvania.

- Business concept and technology validation in acceleration programs.

To continue automation on the platform for a more seamless experience for our users, with the help of our partners KPMG, we're in the process of acquiring licenses and regulatory confirmation letters from the NBR (National Bank of Romania):

Although iFactor is a young start-up, the team has prior experience with EU Subsidy fund raising and we have submitted applications for R&D for iFactor Pure Analytics and SME Instrument Phase II Grants.

Monetisation strategy

iFactor currently employs a success flat fee on both sides, sellers and buyers.

Revenue Stream I 2020:

1. iFactor Hybrid Marketplace (Lending Platform - Workflow Engine and Processes)

In addition to the above model, by which we offer the marketplace, next year we will sell our other home-crafted technological products as white labels, under a SaaS model, generating extra revenue streams.

Revenue Stream II 2021:

2. iFactor PURE Analytics - Alternative Data AI Credit Scoring.
3. iFactor Advanced KYC - KYC distributed data.
4. iFactor Setl - PSD 2/ Open banking Automatic Settlement engine.

In line with this monetisation strategy, clients can also opt to pay additional membership fees and gain lower transaction fees and will be able to access services like cash flow consultancy, collection, insurance etc.

Currently iFactor offers a single invoice factoring product but the platform was designed in a modular way for capabilities of loan applications too.

Use of proceeds

This crowdfunding initiative is a part of a more complex strategy to bring in investments, form partnerships and bring awareness to private investors about trading a new asset class while helping fellow entrepreneurs.

The funds usage breakdown is as follows:

Growth - our rapid scaling plan includes new regional hires - sales representatives, marketing managers, financial strategists, support teams and covering marketing expenses (Campaign assets, Ad & PR budgets, Sales Support, Optimising and lowering CAC).

Technology - further add to our product and engineering team to develop more features, improve processes and launch localised instances of the solution. Introducing the iFactor Pure Analytics Module, an AI based creditworthiness engine ( currently in PoC trials with Raiffeisen Bank International).

Operational Costs - regulatory (localised), legal expenses and EU branches operations.

Our objective for the next 2 years is rapid scaling to reach SMEs in the UK and DACH regions. We have multiple features in development and will be focusing on our product roadmap and reaching our technology and acquisition milestones.

More information about our use of proceeds and detailed planning are available in the document section.