SMEs are the lifeblood of the UK economy, and this partnership will give them the necessary tools, insights, and support to improve their cashflow position.

Access to working capital is one of the biggest challenges to SMEs and the leading reason for businesses to seek funding. The past 18-months have seen many utilise the Government’s Loan Scheme to help them through one of the most challenging times in recent history and has seen a market shift to the funding required for cashflow over business development.

There is currently £61bn owed to businesses across the UK. This, along with burgeoning zombie businesses, rising insolvency rates, and a growing £100bn unsustainable debt position, make it difficult for SMEs to thrive.

itsettled and Nimbla have come together to tackle this problem. 

The partnership allows itsettled to accelerate its ability to facilitate sustainable lending decisions and eliminate poor payment practices in SMEs. It delivers the technology required to have an economy-wide impact on a business’ cashflow and working capital position.

Many companies are yet to recover and return to their pre-pandemic revenue or profit levels, with many now over-leveraged and looking for additional financial support. One of the core issues is that SMEs do not have the time, resources, or expertise to focus on credit management and cashflow, resulting in a worsening ‘late payment challenge’. Until the debt collection and cashflow resilience challenges can be addressed, businesses will struggle to repay lending, become cashflow resilient, and lending ready.

itsettled’s fully automated cashflow & credit management platform collects your invoices fast, reduces risk, and improves your cashflow. Led by credit management expert Glen Morgan, itsettled’s process has gathered £420 million for UK SMEs. Nimbla provides invoice insurance to UK SMEs, giving business owners the confidence they need to succeed. By insuring their invoices, Nimbla users can protect their business against customer defaults. Customers of Nimbla can assess the risk across their whole sales ledger, and after insuring their chosen invoices, businesses can focus on growth and expansion. Nimbla will pay up to 90% of the invoice value if the company becomes insolvent, giving business owners peace of mind.

David Beer, CCO at itsettled, says:

“We’re delighted to announce our partnership with Nimbla, as low cashflow confidence is a growing challenge. By helping businesses become confident in their invoices and solve their working capital challenges, we can help the economy rebound in a sustainable way. I am looking forward to working with Nimbla to bring an end to the poor payment practices we have in the UK while giving businesses access to invoice insurance as and when they need it.”

Blair Pusey, Head of Sales & Partnerships at Nimbla, says:

“Working with industry disruptors is key to our strategy going forward as we enable more SMEs to Protect, Fund & Grow their business. It’s great to be working with itsettled to help SMEs get paid what they are owed for the work they deliver. Late payment and bad debt have the ability to cripple a business which is a growing concern amongst SMEs. Confidence is vital to business growth, and single invoice insurance alongside good credit management and cashflow can give every SME client the peace of mind that whatever may happen they will be paid for their services.”